The curious case of Virender Sehwag

But Sehwag being Sehwag and the vice-captain of the side, the issue can't be kept under wraps for long. Either he is fit or unfit. In both the cases, the questions are discomforting. If he is fit, he ought not to be sitting on the bench. If he is unfit, then he ought not to have taken the plane to England.

If a fit Sehwag is sidelined, Dhoni could have a pronounced reason for it. One, the Nawab of Najafgarh is insisting on being put into the middle order. It's a stretch where Dhoni wants batsmen who could hold end up - like Gambhir and he himself. Sehwag doesn't quite fit into this profile.

Steadiness at number three is probably the reason why Dhoni has pushed Suresh Raina down the order even though the left-hander is in terrific form and was one of the leading scorers of the IPL.

Dhoni, very much his own man, doesn't mind ruffling feathers if he is set upon a course of action. He didn't mind it when he pushed his former skipper Rahul Dravid out of the one-day ranks. Later, he did the same to Sourav Ganguly in Australia.

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Dhoni also has a history with Sehwag. The dashing opener had made a sensational return to Test cricket with hundred in the Adelaide Test of the 2007-08 series Down Under and seemed secure for the rest of the tour. He was duly rewarded with berth in the one-day eleven but a few failures and Dhoni promptly put him on the bench. Sehwag didn't play a game thereafter on the tour.

Sehwag, on that occasion, had publicly picked up an issue with Dhoni. He didn't mind being sidelined if his skipper thought he didn't fit into the scheme of things. But he certainly didn't approve when Dhoni explained Sehwag's absence with an imaginary injury which didn't exist! "Drop me if you must but don't cook up excuses," was Sehwag's curt message.

Thereafter, in the 2007-08 Asia Cup in Pakistan, Sehwag smashed 78 and 119 runs from the first two one-day internationals. Inexplicably, he was then rested in the third match against Bangladesh. Recalled for the remaining three games, Sehwag had scores of 42, 49 and 60 runs.

It's understandable that Sehwag is a power bloc within himself in the team. Gautam Gambhir is his fan and adoring partner whose bat bears a good-luck message from Sehwag. He is a powerful figure in Indian cricket, captain of Delhi Daredevils in the IPL and all set to even have stakes in the company. If he is seen as being treated badly by Dhoni, the message could cause disquiet among other seniors such as Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and even Gambhir.

But then Dhoni isn't the one who takes a step backwards once he has made up his mind. A little flexibility is all that is required in this issue but whether Dhoni is capable of such compromises is another matter altogether.