 After
days of drama and speculation, Virender Sehwag has been finally declared
unfit to play in the ICC World T20 and has been sent back home. Dinesh Karthik,
a wicket-keeping all-rounder, will be Sehwag's replacement in the tournament.
Sehwag had sustained a shoulder injury during the Indian Premier League and
had sit out for a few games before making a comeback in the middle of the tournament
and playing a few games. He was in apparent discomfort and had not played in
the two warm-up games that India played in as he did not in the first game of
the tournament against Bangladesh. Rohit Sharma has been opening the
innings with Gautam Gambhir in his absence. Gay Kirstein had earlier
claimed that despite the injury, it would be wise to have a player like Sehwag
in the team till it was sure that he would not be able to lift the bat.
Due to this uncertainty over Sehwag's fitness, there have been media speculations
about a rift between Sehwag and captain M.S.Dhoni. This was followed by a huge
show of solidarity by Dhoni and the team when the entire squad trooped out for
a press conference and the captain read out a statement that said that everything
was hunky-dory between the players and the captain.
However, nothing had become clear till yesterday either, with none of the two,
the captain or the administrative manager, Chamundeshwar Nath, clarifying
the situation on Sehwag's injury making the media speculate further. One of
the media personnel went up to the extent of accusing Dhoni of leaking news
outside, which angered the captain no ends.
The manager then went on to add that Sehwag was in pain while batting in the
nets but it would have been difficult for the captain to know the kind of pain
the batsman is in while batting in the nets. It was later revealed that Sehwag
suffering from a grade I tear, and will require weeks of recuperation to recover
from the injury.
Within minutes of this drama having unfolded, the BCCI made a press release
that said that Sehwag would be returning back home and Dinesh Kathik would be
replacing him. The team which did not have a back-up wicket-keeper earlier this
benefits from this move, though it remains to be seen how well they regroup
after such an explosive media-meet and focus on the job on hand; to win the
next few games for the side.
|
