Delhi Capitals' (DC) decision to drop their first-choice Indian opener Prithvi Shaw in favour of Ajinkya Rahane against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Saturday (October 24) may have raised eyebrows. But for former India batsman Virender Sehwag, it was a perfectly understandable call from the team's think-tank, led by coach Ricky Ponting. 

After a fine start to the tournament, Shaw's form had dropped significantly before the KKR match, with the talented young batsman not being able to score a run in two of the previous three outings. 

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Sehwag, whom Shaw's flamboyance is often compared with, has all the empathy for the youngster. But he feels it was prudent of Ponting & co to give him some time away. Sehwag even recalled a personal anecdote to stress home the point. 

“Ricky Ponting will continue to back Prithvi Shaw, but he has been in poor form in the past few games and hence he has been given a break because of the form,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.

"Sometimes, a batsman develops a mindset that no matter what I am doing it is not working in my favour. So, at the time, you either take a break yourself, or someone gives you a break, it works best for everyone."

"I share my own story when back in 2006, I was not able to score any runs. But still Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly kept me in the playing XI. I kept telling them that I am not being able to perform, I am not being able to score runs."

"So, give me a break. Instead of giving me a break, in one series, I was made the captain," Sehwag recalled. "The mental phase and thinking of a player is very important. If you yourself are confused, and you are not being able to score runs, and you don’t have any other way to get runs."

“So, at this time it is better to take a break from cricket, to think how you can pursue your batting, and how you make your plans against other teams. So the break always work. So, it is a good decision made by Ricky Ponting to give Shaw a break,” he added.

However, Shaw's replacement Rahane himself got out for a duck as DC crumbled under pressure in the difficult chase of 195 versus KKR and lost by 59 runs.