Virender Sehwag's confusion affected his batting, says selector Chetan Chauhan

Virender Sehwag's "confusion with his batting slot" badly affected his game in the current Ranji Trophy season, according to DDCA's chairman of selectors Chetan Chauhan who on Thursday said the veteran batsman should consider reverting to the opening position.

"Make no mistake, Virender Sehwag is a great cricketer. I believe the problem was his confusion with the batting order. He was in a dilemma as to whether to bat at the top or bat in the middle-order and that has affected his game," Chauhan, a former Indian opener who played in 40 Tests, told PTI here.

Sehwag has scored 234 runs in 13 innings at an average of 19.50 in Delhi's disastrous Ranji Trophy campaign having batted at all positions from numbers 1 to 6.

Asked about what would be the slot where he would like Sehwag to play, Chauhan replied,"I would always like Viru to open the batting. He has scored all his runs opening the batting for India and I believe that he should continue batting at the top of the order".

Chauhan however feels that the "year 2013 wasn't great" for Sehwag.

"I believe Sehwag couldn't perform as per expectations this season. There were a lot of matches in the year 2013 and the year exactly didn't go as he would have liked it to be," Chauhan added.

Asked what would be his advice for Sehwag, he said, "I don't think I need to advice him on technical aspect as he has played 100 Test matches. Anyone who has played those many matches know what they need to do. But yes, I would definitely tell him to work even harder as there is no substitute to hardwork".

Although his opening partner Gautam Gambhir has scored more runs (578 runs) than Sehwag, his captaincy for the state team will certainly come under scanner.

"I can't say what will be done but Gautam Gambhir's captaincy will certainly be discussed when the selection committee meets next to pick up the squad for the Vijay Hazare Trophy (North Zone one dayers)," Chauhan concluded.