Captaincy won't be a burden: Sehwag

The beleaguered Virender Sehwag believes additional responsibility of leading the Indian team would not come in the way of his prime objective of regaining his form, which he said was just a matter of spending some time at the crease.

"It's a matter of one innings. I have to be there for an hour. I got good starts in Faridabad and Delhi. Now I need to convert good starts into big scores and then I will regain my confidence," Sehwag said on the eve of the fifth one-dayer against England in Guwahati on Saturday.

"Captaincy is not a burden for me. I am absolutely clear in my mind that I have to perform as a player, regardless of whether I am captain or not," the stand-in captain said.

The Nawab of Najafgarh followed up his miserable aggregate of 95 runs in the Test series with a pathetic 73 in the four ODIs against Andrew Flintoff's team, prompting questions to be raised about his place in the team.

Sehwag said with the series already decided, the Indians would prefer to rest a couple of players and give opportunity to some young guns in the side.

However, he said the final XI would be decided in a team meeting later in the evening and made public only on the morning of the match.

He also hinted that young middle order bat Venugopal Rao might take the field tomorrow.

"Venugopal Rao has been in the side before Robin Uthappa and he should be given a chance first," he said.

"Everybody will get an equal opportunity in the coming matches. But at the same time I want to stress that our primary aim is to win the remaining matches," he said.

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After having taken a decisive 4-0 lead, the Indians were now keeping themselves motivated for the last three matches by taking it as a new series, Sehwag said. "We have divided the series into two. For us, the last three matches constitute a fresh series. And we have to win at least two." Asked about the dismal form of Mohammad Kaif, Sehwag said, "He has performed very well earlier and fashioned many a win. And just because he has not been among runs in the last few matches, you cannot drop him.

"He is a good fielder as well. And we also do not want to change a winning combination. Even Sachin Tendulkar has had his poor run of forms," Sehwag said, springing to Kaif's defence.

Sehwag disagreed with a suggestion that England's pathetic show in the one-dayers could be due to the heat and humidity.

"This is only an excuse. We did not complain of the biting cold when we lost in Durham. What is obvious is that we are playing really well." On the team creating a world record by successfully chasing in 15 ODIs on the trot, he said, "we never panicked even when we had to score at 8-10 runs per over against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. We have now players like Dhoni and Raina who can win matches for us."