The Australian media accused senior batsman Virender Sehwag of creating a rift in the Indian team, which is reeling under the stress of two embarrassing defeats in the first two cricket Tests for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.


Virender Sehwag

The Courier Mail reported that India coach Duncan Fletcher is facing the greatest challenge of restoring harmony to a squabbling Indian dressing room and said Sehwag is the man polarising opinions.

"Some teammates feel he should be captain instead of keeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni while his detractors are aghast at the lack of fight he has shown in several innings -- including his meek second-innings surrender in Sydney when he displayed the resilience of a soggy tissue to waft an airy cut to Dave Warner from the eighth ball he faced," the report said.

The daily also said that India's team harmony is brittle at the best of times because, "their dressing room is a unique ensemble of vastly contrasting characters, cultures and cliques".

"There are times when there are more than six different languages -- apart from English -- spoken in the Indian rooms," the report said.