Former opener Virender Sehwag said that the Indian team management may not go with K L Rahul at number five in T20s if he fails in the upcoming series. However, he mentioned in Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s era everyone used to get many chances.

“If KL Rahul fails four times batting at No.5, the current Indian team management will look to change his slot. However, same wasn’t the case with Dhoni, who knew how important it is to back players at such positions, having himself gone through the hard grind,” Sehwag told Cricbuzz.

Virender Sehwag, who doesn’t mind his words, said that there was more clarity about team selection when MS Dhoni was the captain of India.

“With MS Dhoni as captain, there was greater clarity with regards to each player’s position in the batting unit. He had an eye for talent and had identified individuals who would take Indian cricket forward,” Sehwag further added.

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Sehwag believes that the top-order batsmen in the 50 overs format get more chances of being successful and it’s the middle-order that needs backing from the team management to show their calibre.

“With the top-order finding it easier for a while in limited-overs cricket, it is those in the middle-order who need backing from a captain. If you don’t give players time, how else will they learn and become big players. I myself batted in the middle-order before opening and made a lot of mistakes, which even resulted in the team’s losses. But you don’t become a big player sitting outside on the bench. Players need time,” Virender Sehwag concluded.

He had praised Rohit Sharma who played a match-winning knock of 119 in the final ODI against Australia in Bengaluru.

“Whenever a player of the calibre of Rohit has 3-4 poor innings with the bat, he himself thinks that ‘I need to make my next inning count’ and that is exactly what Rohit did. Even I used to think in the same way whenever I had a poor run of 4-5 innings,” Sehwag concluded.