Virender Sehwag lacking focus and motivation: Coach A.N Sharma

Virender Sehwag

A.N Sharma, the coach of Virender Sehwag, believes that the swashbuckling batsman has lost his focus and motivation to work hard on his game and get back into the Indian team.

Sharma, who helped Sehwag work on his game after he was dropped from the national team in 2006, remarked that the Delhi batsman was quite simply “not working hard enough.”

In an interview to Aajtak/Headlines Today , Sharma said : “Everything is going wrong for Sehwag. His timing, footwork, shot selection. There is no focus, no commitment… most importantly it seems that he isn’t working hard enough,”

A.N Sharma also said that Sehwag had not paid him a visit after the batsman was ousted from the Indian team.

Sharma said: “Last time when he came to me at this very centre in 2006, he worked hard at this nets behind you for five to six hours, corrected his technique, then gone back to the Indian team and then within a year scored a double and then a triple century.”

“Now it seems the hunger is gone. May be he is too busy for a practice session here. I hope and pray that he comes back to form as soon as possible and get back that touch and be among the runs. Once he does that, we will see that old Sehwag,” he noted.

Sharma also suggested that Sehwag should take cues from fellow Najafgarh-ian & double Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar. Sharma said : ” He(Sehwag) should learn from his(Sushil Kumar’s) commitment and how he chose to be close to the basics (train with his coach Mahabali Satpal) train hard every single day and always be in form.”

Sehwag, who was dropped from the Indian team in March 2013, has scored 234 runs in this year’s Ranji Trophy season, averaging a paltry 19.50 from 13 innings. With those kind of numbers, a comeback for the Nawab Of Najafgarh seems a long way away.