Dhoni adopts wait and watch approach on Sehwag

Two seniors – Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag – came into the ongoing series against Australia under completely similar circumstances.

Harbahajan, back after a hiatus, had to perform to re-establish his credentials while Sehwag desperately needed to come up with meaty knocks to justify his place in the side despite repeated failures.

Two Tests into the four-match series, Harbhajan appears to have bought more time for himself while time appears to have run out for Sehwag unless the selectors, who are likely to pick the squad for the next two Tests on Wednesday, think otherwise.

“That’s a difficult one because you will have to wait and watch as there is a selection meeting,” said MS Dhoni when asked if Sehwag was living on borrowed time.

“You have to create a balance but that’s a difficult one to comment on. You also need to see what situation we are in, because we will be touring abroad and we don’t have that many Test matches after this series. In between we hardly play any Test matches and we go off to South Africa. So, we will have to wait and watch. I won’t really like to comment,” the skipper remarked.

It could be that Dhoni wants Sehwag for South Africa and hence be given an extended run to gain confidence or drop him and give youngster a chance to be ready in time for away series. 

Dhoni, however, was more forthcoming with regard to Harbhajan. The off-spinner hasn’t set the stage on fire since his return but he has been impressive in patches. “What’s important is to realise how he has been performing once he has comeback,” Dhoni began. “Once the big players come back into the side trying to cement their place, the pressure on them is much more compared to a new guy. The reason being, there will be expectations from the senior player for the amount of wickets he has taken or (in case of a batsman) the number of runs he has scored.

“I think in the last three Test matches that he has played, he has shown improvement. He played against England and people weren’t happy. I could also not make him bowl the amount of overs that I would have liked to. That’s the case with three spinners. Often one of them will be slightly under-utilised. And then the 100th Test match came and that pressure was always there on him. What’s important is how he has overcome that. I felt he bowled well in the second innings in Chennai and over here in this game he has shown improvement.”