Though Virender Sehwag is going through a rough phase but Kings XI Punjab coach Sanjay Bangar said the team had full confidence in the dashing opener’s capabilities in the IPL 7.
Riding on Sehwag’s scintillating ton, Punjab cruised to a 24-run victory over Chennai Super Kings to enter the final of the tournament. The devastating batsman blasted his way to a terrific 58-ball 122 which powered Punjab to a mammoth 226 for 6.
“Viru has been playing domestic cricket for a year now. For someone who has played 100 Test matches, it is hard to motivate yourself and push yourself hard when there are no crowds and no real big stage. The competitive juices don’t flow and it can get difficult to motivate yourself. There was also a lot of talk about his glasses and that it has hampered his hand-eye coordination” Bangar told iplt20.com.
“I spoke to Viru about it and he said there was no major problem there and it was just a small issue blown out of proportion. He is a player of quality and free spirit. Another factor was that because most teams had retained the cream of the Indian players, there were not many Indian batsmen left in the auction who could straight away command a spot in the team. The best available were Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Murali Vijay and Virender Sehwag. So, there weren’t too many options. And the price at which we got Viru surprised us all. I played with him 10 years ago and I see no wane in his abilities after all these years. His technique is pretty much the same as it was at that time and I just thought it would be really good for us to have him”, Bangar said.
Bangar didn’t leave a single stone unturned to take Punjab to the final of IPL 2014. Though they failed to lift the coveted trophy but won billion of hears due to their spectacular show.
Bangar also said that the team management didn’t want to burden Sehwag with the captaincy so they decided to give the charge to George Bailey.
“One other name that was on our minds and also on those of a lot of KXIP fans was Virender Sehwag. But we wanted to give Viru a lot of freedom to express himself out there without any added responsibility. George Bailey has a very good personality and a good track record as captain. He currently leads Australia’s T20 side and we have a lot of Australians in our setup, so that was a factor too. His overall personality and demeanour – he brings out the best in the players, is very open and broadminded and always lends a helping hand to the young Indian uncapped players”, Bangar added.
