No plans to demote Sehwag: Dravid

Kochi: Opener Virender Sehwag's prolonged form slump may be a worrying factor but the team management said it has no plans for demoting him in the fourth One-Dayer against England.

Skipper Rahul Dravid said the team would not exercise the option of bringing Sehwag down the order as yet though it could be tried out at a later stage if he failed to come out of the lean patch.

He said it was important to help Sehwag get back to his destructive best since a big score from him at the top had more often than not been a match-winning one.

"What he does when he gets fired at the top of the order is very destructive and that is something he had done successfully in the past," Dravid said on the eve of the match.

"He is having a tough run of late. So we may consider some options as the series goes on. For us it is important to get him back into form," Dravid said.

The captain said that the team management has considered several option and changing Sehwag's batting order would be done as a last resort.

"We have discussed a few things and lot of options. He did come lower down in the order in South Africa and got some runs."

Dravid said the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium wicket looked a typical One-Day track, full of runs.

"Certainly the wicket is a good one and I have been playing at the venue for the last three or four games. It has always been a high scoring game in Kochi," he said.

Dravid, who scored 104 in the match against Pakistan at the same venue last year, said "I hope this time also the pitch will produce high scores."

The Indian captain chose to play the cards close to his chest regarding the composition of the team for the match.

"We will decide the composition tomorrow based on what we think will be good," he said.

On the hot and humid conditions in this part of the country, he said "we take all these factors into consideration and try to avoid lot of exposure to the sun and the heat early."

"We will be hydrated very well and be ready to play. It requires lot of mental strength and ability to cope with such conditions," he said.