This is what I posted when he was rested against Australia in the T20 World Cup.
Lot of criticism for Sehwag. I don't know why. Since his 219, his form hasn't been good but not even bad. Rohit performs in one game and he is said to be back in form, REALLY!!
After 219, Sehwag played 4 tests in Aus. He was the only batsman along with Sachin and Kohli to get two 50+ scores in the series. Then he batted superbly in the second T20 against Australia. In the ODI series, he was getting starts in almost every inning. Even the game against Sri Lanka which India won in less than 40 overs, Sehwag's quick start was extremely important for the other batsmen to continue the momentum.
Then he had a STUNNING IPL. Created a T20 World Record of becoming the only batsman to score 5 consecutive 50+ scores.
Then there was the Sri Lanka ODI series, and he batted pretty well in that series too. He even scored 96 in the first match, couldn't score a ton as he was unfortunately run out. Then came the test series, even though he didn't score a single 50 in the 2 games, he recorded 40+ scores in almost every inning.
So overall his form has been decent. Not good, but not even bad. He performed well in the warmups too. Just a failure against Afghanistan and he is being adjudged as 'completely out of form'. It's not that the Afghanistan game was a do or die for him, but it's baffling to see how this issue of Viru's form has suddenly come up at such a big scale.
I'm obviously very disappointed. Enough is enough. Until Viru returns I'm not at all rooting for India. Can't stand this dirty politics anymore.
And this is what I posted after the World Cup.
Played only 3 games - Failed in the first one, was instrumental in the the chase in the second one and scored 17 (the game in which almost everyone failed) in the third one.
It's pretty clear that Sehwag has become the soft target for any sort of criticism due to team's failures.
The entire team fails and almost always only one guy is blamed, probably because expectations from him are always high.
In all honesty, he hasn't been out of form for so long as the haters try to portray. And with Laxman and Dravid's retirement, I don't think it would be wise to even think of dropping Sehwag or Gambhir.
As far as Rahane is concerned, yes, he is a good player but even he struggles overseas. Have a look at India A's tour to West Indies. Only Pujara was the batsman who looked good.
And those suggesting Chand are simply suggesting a name to suggest. His performances haven't been great anywhere, neither in the world cup nor in the IPLs. He struggled during the entire world cup and made a century in the final and people are backing him up to open in tests, what a joke!
And one thing I have realized is that Sehwag is important for the team. It's only when he performs the team does well. He went out of form in 2007 and the team struggled. He was in superb form during 2008-10 (was the ICC's #1 batsman for around 10 months) and the team reached the number 1 spot too and now that he struggled a bit the team is struggling again. He is a match winner, without him the Indian team are like toothless tigers.
And as far as the question is whether he is done and dusted, obviously not. He performed well in the CLT20 and in the Ranji game - on the 5th day of the game, batting at an unfamiliar position with a broken finger scored a fighting ton. He still is the same Sehwag he was earlier, the only thing is that luck isn't on his side now.
For the coming one year or so, I can't think of any opening pair better than Sehwag and Gambhir.
