Is this the end of the road for Virender Sehwag? Dilip Vengsarkar doesn’t think so. “Not at all,” says the chairman of selectors. “He’s got a good record, we all know that he’s a good player and given the heavy schedule, he has enough chances to make a comeback,” he says.

Apart from Sehwag—who has been dropped from ODIs and not included in the Test squad — Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel and Irfan Pathan, till recently regarded as vital cogs in the Indian cricket team’s scheme of things, have been ignored from the forthcoming tours of Ireland and England.

The decision on Sehwag came at a point when his recent performances in the Afro-Asia Cup has been encouraging with two quickfire knocks of 45 and 52 and though the committee deliberated on him for quite some time, reports suggest that Sehwag’s manner of throwing away his wicket after getting good starts despite repeated warning irked the wise men more than his current form.

Harbhajan’s form is also the reason for the off-spinner not making a comeback. “Harbhajan needs to get wickets, go back to domestic cricket and bowl well,” said Vengsarkar, while about Munaf, he added: “The committee was not completely convinced 100 per cent about his recovery from back injury and with Irfan, we want him to play a few more matches at home.”

Interestingly, there are no domestic matches scheduled till September for the quartet to showcase their improvement in form, while at the same time, there isn’t much to suggest what Robin Uthappa, who still went to Bangladesh despite a below par performance in the World Cup and didn’t play a match, or rather Ajit Agarkar have done to merit a place in the side.

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