By IANS
Sydney : Despite former captains and pundits of the game making a case for his inclusion in the eleven for the second Test against Australia, starting at the Sydney Cricket Ground here Wednesday, dashing stroke-maker Virender Sehwag does not find a place in the 13 announced here tonight.
To make matters worse for the Indians, fast bowler Zaheer Khan is a doubtful starter as he has not been able to recover fully from a sore ankle, the offshoot of the heavy workload in the first Test at Melbourne.
After the massive 337-run defeat in the series opener, Sehwag’s inclusion seemed imperative for the team to get a rollicking start after the way openers Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid got bogged down at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). However, skipper Anil Kumble chose not to cast away either Jaffer or Yuvraj Singh to bring Dravid back to his favourite number three position after one failure.
Former captains John Wright of New Zealand and Steve Waugh of Australia forcefully argued the advantage of playing Sehwag even if it meant dropping Yuvraj Singh as the Delhi batsman is a natural stroke-maker and plays his shots freely at the top of the order. More importantly, Wright and Waugh said, Sehwag’s inclusion would take pressure off Dravid who struggled to force the pace at the MCG.
Australian skipper Ricky Ponting also joined the chorus and believed that the Indians would bring in Sehwag as a tactical ploy to put pressure on the home team.
Though the Indian team management is confident that Zaheer would be fit to take the field Wednesday, it has included Irfan Pathan in the 13 along with Ishant Sharma, leaving out Dinesh Kaarthick and Pankaj Singh.
Australia has decided not to make any change to the winning eleven.