No chance of Sehwag's surprise selection for Champions Trophy: Gavaskar
While form has been unkind to Sehwag in the recent past, Gavaskar says fitness issues continue to persist and selectors will not gamble with Sehwag in the side for the tournament starting June 6.
Virender Sehwag was dropped from the list of probables for Champions Trophy last month. While the selectors will name the final team for the tournament on Saturday, Sunil Gavaskar told NDTV a day earlier that there is no chance of his surprise selection.
While form has been unkind to Sehwag in the recent past, Gavaskar says fitness issues continue to persist too and selectors will not gamble with Sehwag in the side for the tournament starting June 6. "In the case of Sehwag, there is no chance (of a surprise selection). He has not really been a 100 per cent fit right throughout and doesn't look a cent per cent fit as far as the back is concerned. So I don't think they will take a chance with Sehwag," he said.
While Champions Trophy is a 50-over format, Sehwag's showing in Indian Premier League too has not been sensational enough to make a case for his inclusion in the national team. Apart from an unbeaten 95, the Delhi Daredevils player has struggled. " I think he needs to score double and triple hundreds in domestic cricket to force his way back in the Indian cricket team. I don't think 20s and 30s will work and has to get in there by the sheer weight of performance," said Gavaskar. Former India cricketer Farokh Engineer though also added that the foreign teams would be happy to not bowl to Sehwag. "He is still a manacing batsman on his day."
In fact, asked to pick a 15-member squad, Gavaskar and Engineer had largely similar names in their lists, as follows:
Sunil Gavaskar's Team India for Champions Trophy: Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Vinay Kumar and Amit Mishra
Farokh Engineers Team India for Champions Trophy: Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Dinesh Karthik, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra, Irfan Pathan and Praveen Kumar.