'Would you have removed Jasprit Bumrah as well?' - Virender Sehwag accuses Team India of being partial in selection matters

Former India opener Virender Sehwag has slammed the Indian team management for their selection policy. The batting legend criticised the team-management after Yuzvendra Chahal was dropped from the playing eleven for the ongoing first ODI against England at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune.

Chahal played in the first three games of the five-match T20I series against England but failed to impress. In all three games, he proved costly and also struggled to pick wickets. In two of the three games, he conceded more than 40 runs while in the other one, he gave away 34 runs. As far as the wickets are concerned, Chahal picked one wicket in each of the games.

Chahal warmed the bench during the last two T20Is and failed to find a spot in the playing eleven for the first ODI either. India picked Kuldeep Yadav in the team ahead of Chahal. Unimpressed with the selection policy, Sehwag has come down hard on the team management. The former cricketer has opined that there was ‘partiality’ in selection when it came to the parameters for the batsmen and the bowlers in the team.

Virender Sehwag cites an example of KL Rahul

To back his allegations of partiality in the selection, Virender Sehwag cited the example of KL Rahul. The former opener pointed out that Rahul got a chance ahead of Rishabh Pant despite warming the bench for the fifth T20I and failing in the previous four T20Is. Sehwag compared the cases of Rahul and Chahal to claim there was ‘partiality’ in the selection parameters.

“You snub bowlers after one game, but you gave 4 matches to KL Rahul then sat him out in the 5th game. So, if you give bowlers that many chances there will be poor games for them too. If this was [Jasprit] Bumrah and he had 4 moderate outings, will you have thought to exclude Bumrah as well? No, you would have said ‘he’s a good bowler, he will make a comeback,” Virender Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.

Meanwhile, Rahul has repaid the faith shown in him by the team-management by scoring a fine fifty. The right-handed batsman scored an unbeaten 62 off just 43 balls to help India recover from 205 for 5 and post 317 for 5 in the 50 overs. Apart from him, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Krunal Pandya also breached the 50-run mark.