Virender Sehwag wants Kohli to drop himself if he fails in Centurion Test

Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag was absolutely unimpressed with the way Virat Kohli chose his playing eleven for the ongoing Centurion Test. The Indian captain stunned everyone at the toss with the news of Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s exclusion. Wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha missed out on the game owing to a hamstring niggle. Hence, inclusion of Parthiv Patel seemed justified.

But Sehwag looked unhappy with the way Virat dropped Shikhar Dhawan after just one Test failure. Also, the way he reasoned out to exclude Bhuvneshwar from the playing eleven was not acceptable to Virender Sehwag. Sehwag, in a very serious manner, has lashed out at Virat Kohli. Sehwag went on to quote that if one failure is what the team is setting as a parameter, then Kohli should drop himself from the playing eleven if he fails to score in the ongoing Centurion Test.

“Watching Virat Kohli excluding Shikhar Dhawan for just one Test failure, and Bhuvneshwar for no reason at all, Kohli should drop himself in the third Test at Centurion, if he fails to perform in Centurion,” Virender Sehwag told India TV.

Hurting Bhuvneshwar’s confidence

Virender Sehwag further quoted that the omission of Bhuvneshwar Kumar would seriously take a toll on the talented bowler. It is worth noting that Bhuvi was the pick of the Indian bowlers in the first Test at Cape Town. He had scalped six wickets and it was his opening spell on day 1 of the match that had South Africa reeling on 12/3.

In addition to that, Bhuvneshwar also batted for 127 deliveries – the most by any Indian batsman in that game. Sehwag reckoned that the team could have brought in Ishant Sharma at anybody else’s place but not the in-form Bhuvneshwar.

“Excluding Bhuvneshwar wasn’t the right decision. Citing that Ishant might benefit with his height, Virat Kohli has hurt Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s self-confidence. They could have played Ishant in place of any other bowler. Bhuvneshwar performed well in Cape Town and excluding him like this isn’t justified,” Sehwag stressed.

Catch more developments on this and top leading cricket news on CricTracker.