There's one man who can reduce the Sehwag vs MSD rift talk to pulp...Ironically, the biggest flop in the last six overseas Tests is making headlines. Sure, Virender Sehwag was frank in his responses to questions in Brisbane about Mahendra Singh Dhoni's fielding concerns with three senior batsmen (Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag himself) playing in the same XI, but he didn't score too high on diplomacy when it was most needed.

His "why should I have a chat with him (Dhoni)? and 'did you see my catch?' quotes were akin to his poor shot selection he has exhibited all summer in Australia. Sehwag is an accomplished player and to be fair, contributes a great deal to the fear factor faced by the opposition especially when it comes to setting victory targets. But he's not had the kind of success to merit playing to the gallery when it comes to the media.

Some of his responses have bordered on the ridiculous. "I have been hitting the ball well in past matches, so it's not a question of form. Maybe, I need to leave a couple of balls before I start going after the bowlers," he said after his second-ball duck in Brisbane on Tuesday. Has it taken so long for Sehwag to realise where he is going wrong?

The argument of Sehwag is that type of a player and his ways must be accepted, doesn't hold good. When Sehwag hits out without getting his eye in, it appears as if he doesn't care about the interests of his team, and commentators need to get more critical about this aspect of his batting.

We all love strokeplay, but if that is laced with indiscretion very early in the innings, it must be abhorred.
Apart from the two 50 plus scores in eight innings of the Test series against Australia, Sehwag's sequence has been 7, 30, 4, 0, 10, and 18.  His three ODI outings have produced 10, 20 and 0.

He has been compared to a lottery for a while, but he is fast-gaining the reputation of a 'best bet' when it comes to frustrating low scores.

During the John Wright years in which Sehwag rose to prominence, a lot of emphasis was laid on singles, but Sehwag doesn't appear to be a firm believer in them and it is hurting India. Talking about Wright, it is worth recollecting that he dealt with Sehwag physically in that great English summer of 2002 when India won the Natwest Series and squared the Test series against Nasser Hussain's Englishmen.

On the Wright line
Referring to the match against Sri Lanka at the Oval where India had to just get 203 to win, Sehwag got himself out early on. Wrote John Wright in his book 'Indian Summers': "When Sehwag wandered in, I decided it was time for a sort-out. Not realising that my exasperation levels had soared in the red zone, I went up to him, grabbed him by the collar and barked, 'What the hell's going on?

How can you come back in here after playing a shot like that and unbuckle your pads as if nothing's happened?' Everyone froze -- it was like someone had pulled out a gun." Coach Wright and Sehwag moved on from that incident, but the Delhi Dasher is now more frustrating than entertaining.

If he puts his head down to mix aggression with a bit of caution, India can win their second tri-series on the trot in Australia. And when that happens, the Dhoni vs Sehwag rift rumour will not matter any more.