If there is one batsman in the Indian team who lookscapable of taking on the mantle of Sachin Tendulkars successor, it is Virender Sehwag. It is not just the fact that two have an uncanny resemblance when dressed in Indian colours. Sehwag bats with the freedom that Tendulkar battedwith in his youth. He has the same ability to make the situation, the bowler and the pitch look irrelevant. In fact, in what Sehwag himself considersto be his greatest compliment, Tendulkar has said that of the younger crop of players, it is Sehwag whomost resembles his style of play.Sehwags approach to batting is based on a simple philosophy: if the ball is there to be hit, he will hit it. Of course, his idea of a ball that can be hit differs considerably from most other batsmen!Due to his style of play, Sehwag was initially typecast as a limited-overs specialist, and had to wait two years after making his ODI debut to play a Test match, but in an ironic twist of fate, it is his Test record that is far more imposing, while he has not done justice to his enormous talent in One Day Internationals.After some middling performances when he came into the scene initially, Sehwag literally exploded off the blocks when sent in to open the innings against New Zealand in his 15th ODI match. He scored a century off 69 balls, and first displayed his big-hitting ability then.His strike-rate in ODIs is second only to Shahid Afridi amongst batsmen who have scored at least 1000 runs, but his average of just 34 runs is far below his Test match average of 50 . In ODIs, Sehwag has always threatened to take the match away from the opposition, but not done it often enough. Even so, he is the man to smash the fastest century by an Indian in ODIs, getting to the landmark off just 60 balls against a hapless New Zealand attack that didnt know what hit them.However, it is a different story in Test matches, where the long innings have not been sporadic. In an astonishing statistic, 13 of his 23 Test centuries have been scores in excess of 150. In what perhaps sums up his style and flair best of all, when he was batting on 295 and about to become the first Indian triple-centurion, Sehwag chose to get to the landmark by smacking the bowler for a six.He went onto make another triple hundred, this time the visiting Proteas at Chennai March 2008 and almost got another one against Sri Lanka next year, before falling short by just seven runs. He is among only 3 men, Lara and Bradman, being the others to have scored two triple centuries in Test cricket. He is also the only Indian to have scored a triple century in Test matches.He played a vital role to Indias success in the longest format on their way to becoming the world number 1. However, Sehwag slowly started to lose form since the 2010 season and his place in the sidewas being questioned. In his last 20 appearances hemanaged just one score of hundred of more, a stat that reflected Indias poor run in Test cricket during the period. He was then recalled to the side for the home Test series against Australia, but lack of performances forced to exclude him from the side for the last two Tests.Though his ODI career is not as good as his Test record, Sehwag holds the record for the highest individual score in a match when he made 219 against West Indies at Indore in 2011, which was only the second double ton in the 50-over format, next only to Sachin Tendulkars 200 not out against South Africa at Gwalior. However, he didnt do anything of note after that and was dropped for the home ODI series against England after a string of poor shows.He went back to the domestic circuit in a quest to regain his spot in the national side but couldnt quitemanage eye-ball grabbing performances.IPL: Sehwag played for Delhi Daredevils since the inception of the IPL till the 6th edition, but the franchise decided not to retain him for the 7th. He went into the auctions pool and was bought by Kings XI Punjab.bySaurabh Somani - March 2014
Posted on: Fri, 30 May 2014 18:44:31 +0000
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