Virender Sehwag Slams Ex-Selector Sandeep Patil For Jeopardising His Career
Published - 19 Jul 2019, 01:26 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:01 AM
Things really did not go well when Virender Sehwag and Sandeep Patil came together for an interview. The panel was discussing about the future of MS Dhoni and what the selectors should do when Sehwag took a sly dig at Patil. Sehwag’s decorated international career had come to a very disappointing end. The legendary batsman had announced his retirement in 2015 after being left in limbo for two years.
India tried out Shikhar Dhawan in 2013 and the experiment paid off well. Consequently, Sehwag lost his place in the team soon. He then played in domestic cricket and the Indian Premier League but could not force his way back into the national team. The right-hander finally announced his retirement to bring down curtains on his illustrious career.
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And when Sehwag got an opportunity to make former chief selector Patil realise that mistake, he did not let it go. Speaking on ABP, Sehwag said that the selectors did not talk to him about his future after dropping him from the team. Patil was clearly embarrassed and was quick to defend himself.
“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. We had asked him and he said 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,” Patil told Sehwag.
Sehwag, however, was in no mood to listen to Patil as he reiterated that the selectors committed a mistake. The legendary opener made it clear 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 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,” said Sehwag.
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