Sehwag’s dismal Ranji season ends

Delhi coach Sanjeev Sharma defended discarded India internationals Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag after his team failed to make the Ranji Trophy quarterfinals for the fourth year in a row. Sehwag has scored 234 runs in the season, averaging less than tail-ender Ashish Nehra. Sehwag averaged 19.50 from 13 innings while Nehra made 182 in eight innings at 22.75. The statistics sum up the season the explosive opener, who was dropped from the Indian team in March 2013, has had. Coach Sharma tried his best to defend the ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’. ‘He is Viru, a very big player. People expect big scores from him everytime he comes out to bat. I feel he is just a bit out of form,’ Sharma, himself a former India player, said after Delhi lost to Karnataka on Thursday. Sehwag’s form certainly hit Delhi hard but it would be a bit unfair to make Gambhir the scapegoat. The southpaw, who could not find a place in the India squad for New Zealand tour, was Delhi’s highest scorer with 578 runs at 48.16, including three fifties and a hundred.