Speculations were doing the rounds that Virender Sehwag might retire from international Test cricket after being dropped from the India Test squad against Australia. But the swashbuckling batsman said that he was not thinking of retirement and would strike back soon.
Virender Sehwag, who failed to make it to the Test squad for the the remaining two Tests against Australia, will have to work really hard to claim his position as young guns like Cheteshwar Pujara and Murali Vijay have been consistently performing well.
"I have no plans to retire now. I will try to make a comeback," Virender Sehwag told NDTV.
The 34-year-old opener was sacked from the Indian team following his poor performance of late. He scored just 27 runs (11, 16, and 17) in the three innings of the ongoing Test series against Australia.
The century against England at Ahmedabad in November-December 2012 was the last time he scored big. He scored only 198 runs from eight innings in India's tour to Australia.
Sehwag's opening partner Gautam Gambhir was also dropped from the squad recently due to poor form. Interestingly, they were one of the best openers in the world not long ago with an average of 52.52, scoring 4412 runs from 87 innings.
With the veteran openers being shown the doors, Murali Vijay, who scored a century in the second Test against Australia in Hyderabad, may open with Shikhar Dhawan in the remaining two Tests to be played in Mohali from 14 March and in Delhi from 22 March.
India lead the four-match Test series 2-0 after convincing wins in Chennai and Hyderabad.
Except the omission of Sehwag, the rest of the squad remains unchanged. Veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh has also been retained in the squad in spite of his poor spell in the ongoing matches.
India squad: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Capt.), Sachin Tendulkar, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Shikhar Dhawan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ashok Dinda, Harbhajan Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pragyan Ojha and Ishant Sharma.
Australia squad: Michael Clarke (Capt.), Shane Watson, Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Ed Cowa, XJ Doherty, Moises Henriques, Phillip Hughes, Mitchell Johnson, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner.
