Statistical Significance and Managerial Significance of Sehwag's selection.

Vengsarkar:- "Sehwag was selected because Dravid insisted on picking him up".

Dravid:- "Sehwag is going through a lean patch and we have to back him up as he has raw power and the hunger to go against all kind of attack so I have picked Sehwag hoping that he chose this time to get back into form".

The statistics has a different story to say. In last few matches Sehwag reached above forty only once. Got out every time flashing his bat outside the offstump or by showing off an over ambitious shot. The statistics by all way indicates Sehwag is on a slide and a scenario analysis with Mcgrath or even with bowlers like Chaminda Vas will tell you that he is not going to reach even 30's before he will be out from team forever. The statistical significance is that Sehwag should not be picked and may be batsmen like Badrinath, Dhawan or for that sake Mongia should be given a chance.

But then the real life has many unpredictable variables and a simulation study can tell that if Sehwag scores a blitzkrieg 50 odd runs, the chances of India winning the match increases by let say 30%. As a statistician people can ignore this but then as a manager when Rahul Dravid has to decide his team he has to consider all the options available with him and then take the decision. We cant doubt his abilities as a captain based on some statistics because the writing on the wall is that " What is statistically significant may not be a significant information for a manager and what is significant for a manager may not be statistically significant".