Can Viru reinvent himself in middle?

MUMBAI: With a lot of international cricket coming up for the Indian team, the team management must be bracing for selectorial headaches. Skipper MS Dhoni has his task cut out what with four batsmen gunning for the openers' slot, three for the middle-order and two in the all-rounder's position — all formats included.

The announcements of the India 'A', India Red and the India Blue squads last week have Delhi batsmen Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, along with Tamil Nadu's M Vijay and Mumbai's Rohit Sharma in the fray top of the order while lower down, Yuvraj Singh is back giving competition to Suresh Raina.

On Saturday, matters got just a little more complicated when reports suggested that Sehwag, who has been opening for India for almost a decade now, informed the cricket board that he's ready to be considered for the middle-order too.

Sehwag's willingness to bat down — which he's done only 10 times in his 180 innings as a Test batsman and 33 out of 245 times in One-dayers — shows how the competition has toughened. For Dhoni, it's a tough one too, because he'll have to take the call.

However, Sehwag's possible desperation and Dhoni's decision-making abilities aside, the question begging attention is if Sehwag deserves a slot in the middle-order or the comeback, when it happens, needs to be in the position that he's batted at for close to nine years now?

"Middle-order? No, never," says Sehwag's early coach AN Sharma. He is clear that Sehwag needs to come back into the Indian team, and that too in the opener's position. "I haven't spoken with him of late but there's no doubt in my mind about that," he says. "He's a special player, one who can win matches at the top of the order and has a proven record. He needs to bat in a position that he's best at and that is the opener's position," adds Sharma.

On that count, the selectors too seem to have little doubt because they've included the senior batsman in the India 'A' squad to open the innings. For Dhoni, while it's still a decision to make, the fact of the matter remains that at 33 going on 34, the right-handed batsman doesn't quite make the cut in the opening position.

"Given his stature, if he thinks he's in that frame of mind, then he should be given a chance. Because he started off as a middle-order batsman and had proved himself. But that can be considered only after he first makes himself available for selection. So, first you have to wait for that and then consider the next step," says former India selector Kiran More.

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Shweta Pandey

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