Is dropping Virender Sehwag enough?

NEW DELHI: The new selection panel, now into the third month of its tenure, has taken two strong steps so far: dropping Zaheer Khan after the third Test against England and leaving out Virender Sehwag for the upcoming ODIs against the same opponent. But with the entire batting order floundering and victories hard to come by, does Sehwag's axing send out a strong enough message to other non-performing players?

"To leave out just Sehwag is not fair. At least three or four must have been dropped," former India opener Chetan Chauhan said. "The entire middle order has failed. Maybe they didn't drop Gautam Gambhir because they didn't want to expose inexperienced players at the top. Someone like Rohit Sharma has done very little and has been given a long run.

Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan and Abhinav Mukund need to be getting more opportunities. Someone like Monoj Tiwary has been deprived of opportunities just because Rohit is around."

Another former opener, Aakash Chopra, is also baffled by the decision to retain Rohit Sharma. "Rohit should have cemented his place in the XI after having played close to 90 ODIs. If you pick him to warm the bench, it would be better to give a chance to a Robin Bist or Paras Dogra who have been scoring runs," said Chopra.

"It's not that Sehwag should not have been dropped but he is not the only one responsible for the poor show over the last 18 months? One can't deny that Viru has to rediscover some serious form to be going to the next World Cup. Gambhir, too, has now got three ODIs to run into form and that will help the young opener to ease in," he said.

"But then things change drastically in Indian cricket. If Viru scores a couple of tons against Australia in the Test series, then he might well be back in the ODIs. The selectors need to blood youngsters."

Former India spinner Maninder Singh, however, believes Rohit Sharma needs a jolt but should not be completely ignored. "True, Rohit is a wonderful talent, but he and Raina need a jolt. They should be made to play domestic cricket for at least two years. What's happening now is that they are being drafted into the national team immediately after scoring a few runs in domestic cricket.

"The problem is captain MS Dhoni has barely played any domestic cricket and he doesn't know the players around. So, he keeps asking for the same players. And that's how Ravindra Jadeja is still surviving in the team," Maninder said.