By Rex Clementine, IANS,
Dambulla : Indian opener Virender Sehwag, who twisted his ankle while practicing Sunday, will leave Sri Lanka and not participate further in the series.
A top source in the Indian team told IANS that in all probability the Delhi batsman will be flying back home and no replacement will be sought.
Sehwag, the only Indian batsman to show any kind of form during the Tests, missed the first ODI due to the injury here Monday and his departure will be a setback for the Indians, who are trailing the five match series 0-1 after losing the first match by eight wickets here.
“He (Sehwag) is still in the hotel. It was quite bad yesterday. We will get to know soon,” Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni told reporters at the post-match press conference.
Reflecting on the loss, the Indian captain said that he failed to read the wicket and admitted that his decision to bat after winning the toss wasn’t right.
“To start with, we misread the wicket a bit. We did not think it would seam or swing that much. Of course, since the breeze was strong we expected it to swing throughout the day which it did,” Dhoni said.
At the start of the series, the focus was on Sri Lanka’s mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis, who had picked up a world record 26 wickets in three Tests, but Monday it was against the seamers that the Indians struggled as they lost four early wickets.
“They got the first two batsmen out, it was not like the batsmen played bad shots and got out. Credit goes to their fast bowlers, they got wickets. Later on, Mendis put the pressure. The only thing we were doing was to catch up and it gets really tough in one-day games if you lose too many wickets up front,” he added.
Mendis then came on and claimed three wickets in nine overs with four maidens giving away only 21 runs. Muttiah Muralitharan also picked up three wickets.
“Murali and Mendis are different bowlers. Murali can turn the ball on any sort of wicket, he loves Sri Lankan wickets. Even when he bowls fast, he gets some purchase out of the wicket. If it was any other spinner apart from Murali and Mendis, they wouldn’t have got so much turn. There was a bit and when you are in a good position, you can exploit that,” Dhoni added.