Former India opener Virender Sehwag on Thursday said the BCCI selection committee must speak to Mahendra Singh Dhoni if the veteran is no longer in their scheme of things.
There is intense speculation that Dhoni, who has already retired from the Test format, has played his last ODI following India’s semi-final exit from the World Cup.
Sehwag feels that retirement is Dhoni’s individual call but selectors must speak to him before announcing the West Indies squad. “It should be left to MS Dhoni to decide when to hang up his boots,” Sehwag said during a panel discussion on ABP News.
He added, “The duty of the selectors is to reach out to Dhoni and inform him that he will no longer be seen as India’s wicket-keeper batsman going forward. I wish the selectors had asked me as well about my plans.”
Sandeep Patil was the chairman of selectors when Sehwag was dropped from the side in 2013 and never made a comeback. An embarrassed Patil, who was also a part of the panel discussion with Sehwag, apologised to the 40-year-old.
“The responsibility to talk to Sachin [Tendulkar] about his future was given to me and Rajinder Singh Hans while the same responsibility was given to Vicky [Vikram Rathour] for Sehwag,” Patil said.
“We had asked him [Rathour] and were informed that he had spoken with Sehwag. But if Sehwag is saying that Vikram did not talk to him, I would like to take responsibility for the same.”
Sehwag reminded Patil that there’s no point speaking to the players after squad announcement. “Vikram spoke to me after I was dropped. It would have made sense if he spoke to me before that. There’s no point talking to a cricketer once he is dropped.
“If MSK Prasad speaks to Dhoni after he is dropped, what would he [Dhoni] say? That he would play first-class cricket and the selectors should pick him if he scores runs? The point is that the selectors should reach out to cricketers before they are dropped.”
However, World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev begged to differ. “I don’t think that a selector speaks to the player when he is picked and so I don’t see why he needs to be told that he will be dropped,” the India great said.
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