Virender Sehwag; India’s blazing opener ruled out of Asia Cup
Indian side underwent a setback ahead of the final game of 10th Asia Cup against the Lankans as Virender Sehwag, the swashbuckling opener, has been ruled out of the continental event due to a strained hamstring.
Sehwag sustained the hamstring injury during India's nail-biting chase against Green Shirts on Saturday and has been recommended a 10 day’s rest. The wicketkeeper batsman, Dinesh Karthik, has been called up as his replacement. Sehwag did not join the team in a practice session on Monday morning and will go back to India today.
In an aberrant innings where he scored only 10 off 32 balls, Sehwag seemed to be in pain and sought the physician’s assistance. Even after getting an in-ground treatment from the physio, he had to rely on Suresh Raina’s services as runner before he was sacked by Abdul Razzaq.
Born on October 20, 1978, Virender Sehwag (1978-10-20) is an aggressive right-handed opener of the Indian cricket team. Sehwag is one of the Indian leading batsmen and at times goes very well with the ball as well as a right-arm off-spinner. He played his debut One Day International against arch-rival Pakistan in April 1999, though it was a poor start where he could score only 1 run.
Sehwag's scores swiftly, and has an extremely quick run rate of 103.44 runs per 100 balls – the run rate has been exceeded by only one current player: Boom Boom Afridi of Pakistan, but he has a pretty low average. He is more successful in chasing run, seven of his twelve centuries have come up while chasing. He has led the Indian’s side seven times due to the unavailability of the skipper due to injury, illness or rotation policy.
Sehwag has been facing a series of injury problems since 2009. The blazing opener in 2009 injured his shoulder during the Indian Premier League (IPL) in South Africa and failed to make a place in Indian squad for the World T20 in England. He failed to spot in the World T20 this year in the Caribbean last month due to a shoulder injury, and had also missed the subsequent tri-nation series in Zimbabwe. Likewise, shortly after making a return from a stretched shoulder injury, he got a strained hamstring on Saturday.
It seems as if no-tolerance stance adopted by the Board of Control for Cricket in India towards player’s physical fitness is not completely out of place. India’s below par performance in the T20 World Cups and the chronic collapse of few senior players ahead of or at some point in any big tournaments has occasionally torpedoed the plans of team.
Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Chairman of Indian selection committee had recently said that fitness was a top priority of the selectors while picking up a player. Indian coach Gary Kirsten, as well, ensured that his cricketers did not get into a relaxing zone all through the tournament. He said that the players keep on running in between innings or after the game. In fact the team coach makes the men in blue jog to the hotel from a point instead of bringing them back directly by bus.
However all these efforts have not helped encourage the Indian side to perform a hundred percent, the seamers looked erratic in their opening match against Bangali Tigers and Ashish Nehra struggled primarily. Later on Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said Nehra is “not 100 per cent fit” still he played against arch-rival Pakistan. Nehra did not join the team in a practice session on Monday, but team manager Biswal said: “Nehra had back spasms in the first match, but has recovered. He is ready for the Sri Lanka match”.
India will meet Sri Lanka in the final of Asia Cup on Thursday, where the hosts will defend the title while enjoying their home crowd as well as pretty favourable home conditions.
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