Future of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag ?

The squad for the tour to South Africa starting on the 5th of December, 2013 has been announced and both Gautam Gambir and Virender Sehwag’s names don’t feature in the list. In a country where the pool of young talent available is very large, its possible to consider a situation where the two of them won’t get a chance again. So, let’s look at the possibility that this the end of the road for these two wonderful opening batsman.
    Sehwag, who was dropped in the home series against West Indies also, has been in dismal form for some time now. In the 2013-14 domestic season, Sehwag’s highest score is 59 that he scored in the Challenger Trophy. In the last 3 Ranji Trophy matches, his scores are 3,6,9,35*,1 and 15 i.e. 69 runs in 6 innings. Combined with the dip in the form, Sehwag’s fitness is also a concern. While players like Zaheer Khan and Yuvraj Singh has gained back their spot on the team through proper fitness training and performance in domestic contests, Sehwag makes his case difficult by having neither.
    The case of Gautham Gambhir is little better. Dropped from the squad due to poor form, Gambhir has managed to perform well in the domestic form of the game. In the last 3 tests he played for Delhi, he has scored 29,153,64,51*,31 and 44 respectively. He also managed to score a century in the warm up tests against the West Indies. But even this and an experience of 54 tests, couldn’t overcome his lack of performances in the International scene in the last few years.
    But what works most against the 2 above mentioned players is the recent success of Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay. Added to this, the middle order has been solidified with the presence of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma and the talented Ajinkya Rahane. And this isn’t the entire list of players available for the team. The only advantage Gambhir has is that he is left handed batsman and hence can bring diversity into the picture. But the future of Sehwag seems bleak. Both players’ BCCI contract hasn’t been renewed and it remains to be seen if they slowly fade out of the game or retire in the near future or come out fighting through performances in the domestic and international scene when given the few chances.