Virender Sehwag

Visakhapatnam: That Virender Sehwag opened the innings with Sourav Ganguly in the third ODI, on Wednesday, won’t probably remain a one-off move.

“There’s this feeling within the group (Team India) that Sehwag is at his best and most destructive when he’s at the top of the order… He’s likely to open again,” coach Greg Chappell told The Telegraph the day after.

Sehwag, of course, was recalled for the ongoing series against Sri Lanka as a middle-order batsman. The rethink, in fact, has come just days after he got picked for the World Cup as somebody for a berth down the order.

That Sehwag didn’t get very many (only 12, all the runs via boundaries) hasn’t changed the thinking in the Indian camp.

Incidentally, with there being major fitness concerns, Chappell isn’t sure about the XI that will take the field in Saturday’s decider here. “We want to win the series and have a psychological advantage leading into the World Cup… The best available are going to play… I can’t, right now, be specific…” he remarked at the Taj Residency.

India and Sri Lanka are in the same group (B), but Mahela Jayawardene’s team has the higher seeding.

Former Sri Lankan coach Bruce Yardley, meanwhile, has praised the “team spirit” being shown by the Indians.

Speaking on board an Air Sahara flight from Mumbai to this port city (via Hyderabad), he said: “The manner in which the entire team ran to congratulate Sourav Ganguly for a terrific catch (Sanath Jayasuriya off Zaheer Khan) in Goa was exceptional… I hadn’t seen that before in Indian teams…”

While that’s encouraging, fitness-related worries are definitely spoiling the script.