Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag has come down hard on the current team management for the treatment meted out to young Rishabh Pant. Besides, he also raised questions over former skipper MS Dhoni's rotational policy saying that he never communicated to the players before dropping the cricketers.
Pant has been on the wrong side after his consistent poor show with the bat following the ICC World Cup 2019. While the management tried to give him an extended run but since Rishabh Pant sustained the concussion injury against Australia; he is trying to find it tough to break into the playing XI. KL Rahul seemed to have adjusted well with the gloves and is consistently scoring runs with the bat which has made things grimmer for the young cricketer from Delhi.
Virender Sehwag slammed the management for treating Rishabh Pant wrongly. He stated that if the team management believes Pant to be a match-winner, he has to play. Notably, Pant has been touted as the successor for MS Dhoni, who is on the twilight of his career. Moreover, Sehwag cited an example from Dhoni's captaincy era and took a jibe for his lack of communication on dropping Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag as a result of the 'rotation policy' adopted during the CB Series in 2011-12.
"When MS Dhoni said in Australia that the top three are slow fielders, we were never asked or consulted. We got to know from the media. He said at the press conference but not at the team meeting that we are slow fielders. Talk at the team meeting was that we need to play Rohit Sharma who is new and that’s why there will be rotation policy.
If the same is happening now (with regards to Pant's case), that’s wrong," Virender Sehwag said on Cricbuzz live post the fourth T20I between India and New Zealand in Wellington.
Meanwhile, it is likely that Rishabh Pant might sneak into the playing XI for the final T20I against New Zealand at the Bay Oval. India have already sealed the series and will look for a whitewash against the Kiwis.
