Then, opening up for the first time on the selection drama that preceded the final Test — he had pressed for the exclusion of an out-of-form Sehwag — Vengsarkar said, “We have so many discussions. But this case, the captain had so much confidence in him, I didn’t want to be a spoke in the wheel. It is the captain’s call because he is the one who is leading the team out there. I expressed my opinion because this is a very important Test match, but he had something else in mind. Fair enough, because at the end of the day, we are here to support the Indian team.”

What about Harbhajan Singh? Wouldn’t the ace off-spinner have made a huge difference on the dusty Newlands surface? “Yeah, but the thing is that Sehwag was finally picked because he could bowl his off-spin. I was told he bowled very well in the West Indies, I was not there. Besides, what we thought was he would help in scoring some runs also. That is why Harbhajan was not picked,” he said. It’s another matter that Sehwag came up with just 44 runs in the match and bowled just one over in the second innings. But, according to Vengsarkar, the turning point was the crucial session between lunch and tea on the fourth day, when Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar struggled against debutant left-arm spinner Paul Harris. Just 24 runs came in 88 minutes before Dravid got out with the team’s score at 114 and Tendulkar seven runs later — the second innings collapse for 169 virtually cost India the match.

... contd.