Sehwag to lead; Karthik for Dhoni

Chennai: Virender Sehwag will lead the Indian team in the third and fourth ODIs — in Cuttack and Kolkata — against Sri Lanka after Mahendra Singh Dhoni was slapped with a two-match ban by ICC Match Referee Jeff Crowe for the team’s slow over-rate at Nagpur.

The National selection panel which met here on Saturday agreed on Sehwag’s name as the stand-in skipper. The dashing opener’s elevation was on expected lines since he is the unofficial vice-captain of the side.

“The ban on Dhoni is unfortunate. But we will have to grapple with such situations. We believe Sehwag can do the job in Dhoni’s absence,” said chairman of the National selection panel Krishnamachari Srikkanth.

He was concerned though at the quality of the Indian fielding in the series. “There is much room for improvement in this department. The fielding definitely needs tightening up.”

Placid pitches

Srikkanth was unwilling to blame the bowlers for returning expensive figures. “The tracks were extremely batsman-friendly and I would not like to be critical of the bowlers. The pitches were placid and there was little in them for the bowlers,” he said.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik will take Dhoni’s place with the big gloves. He was a part of the side for the two-match Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka.

And lanky paceman Ishant Sharma comes into the squad for Santhakumaran Sreesanth, recovering from swine flu. Ishant, rested from the Indian team after the Twenty20 series, turned out for Delhi against Bengal in the Ranji Trophy.

Yuvraj Singh, battling fitness concerns, has been retained in the squad. The selectors seem to have taken into account the fact that the left-hander is a ‘big-match’ player and could still have a role to play in a series that could go down to the wire.

Dhoni will return for the final ODI in Delhi. Apart from his leadership qualities, he was in impressive form with the bat.

Interestingly, Sehwag had stepped down as captain of Delhi Daredevils in the IPL to focus on his batting. The belligerent, opener, however, said he would love to skipper India again if he was given the honour.

The squad: (for the third and fourth ODIs): Virender Sehwag (capt.), Gautam Gambhir, Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Sudeep Tyagi, Pragyan Ojha