‘Would You Have Removed Jasprit Bumrah as Well?’ – Virender Sehwag Slams Indian Management For ‘Partiality in Selection’

Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag has come down hard on the Virat Kohli-led side for their selection policy. The batting legend criticised the team-management after Yuzvendra Chahal was dropped from the playing eleven for the ongoing first ODI against England at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.

Sehwag said there was ‘partiality‘ in selection when it came to the parameters for the batsmen and the bowlers in the team as he cited the example of KL Rahul. The former opener pointed out that Rahul got a chance ahead of Rishabh Pant despite warming the bench for the fifth T20I and failing in the previous four T20Is.

Both KL Rahul and Yuzvendra Chahal faced an axe from the playing 11 after their poor performances in the T20I series. While Chahal was dropped after the third match, Rahul suffered the same fate in the series-decider.

“You snub bowlers after one game, but you gave 4 matches to KL Rahul then sat him out in the 5th game. So, if you give bowlers that many chances there will be poor games for them too. If this was [Jasprit] Bumrah and he had 4 moderate outings, will you have thought to exclude Bumrah as well? No, you would have said ‘he’s a good bowler, he will make a comeback.’,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.

Yuzvendra Chahal is your top T20 bowler, he gives you wickets, and he got 2-3 bad games and now is out of the team. One is a top bowler in ICC rankings and other is the top batter, so why partiality in them? I don’t understand this concept,” he added.

Notably, Yuzvendra Chahal has been poor in both ODI and T20I cricket in the last 18 months. Since the start of August 2019, Chahal has managed just 8 wickets in 5 ODIs at an average of 37.12. As far as T20Is is concerned, he has accounted for just 16 wickets in 17 games at an average of 37.68 and an economy rate of 9.13.

Meanwhile, KL Rahul barring the T20I series against England has been outstanding in both ODIs and T20Is in the past 18 months. The right-handed batsman scored an unbeaten 62 off just 43 balls to help India recover from 205 for 5 and post 317 for 5 in the 50 overs. Apart from him, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Krunal Pandya also breached the 50-run mark.