Virender Sehwag

Cape Town: The Team India thinktank chose to ‘protect’ Virender Sehwag in the third and final Test, but three former openers — Barry Richards, Ravi Shastri and Aamer Sohail — who spoke to The Telegraph (on Tuesday afternoon) weren’t critical of the move to promote wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik.

The following are excerpts from what they said:

Richards: I’m for specialists doing the opener’s job, but the Indians got forced into changing the batting order… Had conditions been otherwise, I’m sure Sehwag would’ve been dropped... As for Karthik, well, if a non-specialist had to get the role, then anybody could... Provided, of course, the batsman wants to do the job... I haven’t seen such a flat wicket for a long time and some would get tempted to come out of retirement! In fact, it may remind Sehwag of Multan.

Shastri: If a change had to be made, I would’ve liked Rahul Dravid to open… Perhaps he would’ve, had we fielded first... Sending Sehwag to the middle-order isn’t a bad idea... I don’t agree that a wrong signal has been sent... It’s a horses-for-courses decision and he could make the most of this opportunity… On this wicket, Sehwag had to play.

Sohail: After the first Test itself, I’d suggested in these columns that it would be okay for Sehwag to bat in the middle-order till his confidence returned… That has happened… On such a flat wicket, anybody could open… The batsmen are getting so much time…