Legendary opener Virender Sehwag admitted that he was hurt after being dropped from the Indian team in the middle of the 2013 Test series against Australia without any communication from team management or selectors.
Sehwag was dropped after the second Test against Australia in Hyderabad but he felt that he should have given the option to play two more and retire.
“I hadn’t scored runs in two Tests against Australia. So, I was thinking I would get a couple of more opportunities to perform well in the last two Tests (of the series) and then get dropped if I didn’t perform. If the selectors would have given me that option to play two more Tests and say that you play the two matches and then retire, I would have thought about it,” Sehwag told ESPN Cricinfo.
“Absolutely, nobody called me from the team management, selectors or BCCI. I got to know about it from a newspaper, that hurt me then but I am fine with it now,” Sehwag said.
“I told the management (about wanting to bat lower down) but they felt that I was still good enough to play as an opener and they didn’t want to take chances with the opening pair. I tried my best but could not get an opportunity in the middle order,” he said.
“When I played my last series, Tendulkar was still there, Kohli and Dhoni were there. Pujara was playing as the No. 3 batsman. Tendulkar was playing at 4, Kohli at 5 and it meant that I had to bat at No. 6 after Tendulkar as you could not ask him to bat at No 3 or 5. So, there was no chance for me to bat in the middle order.”
Sehwag was an explosive opener who destroyed the opposition team with his aggressive batting. He made the batting look pleasing to the eye and created a big impact on the match with some entertaining batting.