Virender Sehwag , Man who needs no introduction to the cricket fraternity , The attitude , the reputation of the man were enough to send shivers down the spine of some of the top quality international bowlers . Unfortunately he has been dropped from the Indian team , and looks like he had already played his last game for Team India . Viru is a special cricketer . His “see the ball , hit the ball” and Devil may care attitude towards the game made him even more special. He may not have the consistency like Sachin , adaptability like a Rahul Dravid . He neither puts a heavy price on the wicket like Jacques Kallis nor offers resistance like a Ricky Ponting , But he is a lord of the crease who just goes by his natural instincts and never really cares about the reputation of the opponents . Sehwag’s success mantra:- ‘Hit the ball when its meant to be’. “I play the ball not the Bowler.” Yes .Sehwag has his own technique which works for him very well. End of the day, what counts is the amount of runs made and the time taken to do so. This will determine the outcome of a match. The great Ian Chappell compared him with SIR Donald Bradman . Not for his consistency , not for his Technique , but for his fearless attitude towards the game irrespective of the situation . Similar to Bradman , he has the highest strike rate among all the top scorers in this generation. Viru has this habit of amassing big scores every now and then , which none of the so called batting legends of Indian team couldn’t achieve. Whenever people are asked to describe Sehwag in one word , they use words like “Aggressive , Attacking and fearless” , But if I was asked to define Sehwag in one word , I’d say Confidence . Yes , If anyone asks me “what is confidence in cricket” ? I’d ask them to look in the eyes of Virender Sehwag when he is at the crease .His confident and determined eyes to send the ball to its home , i.e. boundary , irrespective of the situation , bowler and the pitch , makes the people feel “wow”. No one in the history of cricket can produce such “WOW” moments like Sehwag , who does it time and time again. Sehwag makes the hall of fame only for the fact of transforming an opener’s role in test cricket. Similar to Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana transforming an opener’s role in the ’96 World Cup. He is a transformational player whose self belief and confidence has made him overcome his limitations. His batting is a joy to watch. He is an inspiration not just on the cricket field but in all walks of life. Players like Sehwag make the test cricket worthwhile. There are mainly 2 types of cricket fans . 1) Purists . 2) Entertainment freaks . The first category people love traditional cricket , i.e. test cricket . A real test for any player. It is rightly called as “Test cricket”. The entertainment freaks are the modern day fans , who love to watch the nail biting contest , high scoring thrillers , Gangnam steps etc. etc. . So the modern day fans would find test cricket boring , this is where players like Sehwag makes a difference. He is saving grace of modern test match cricket. He has turned all cricket manuals upside down with his originality. stats do not justify him , It is the entertainment value he brought to the game which is just unmatchable. Let’s have a look at Virender Sehwag’s stats in test match cricket since Jan 1 2011. Matches Innings Runs Highest Average 100’s 50’s 18 31 916 117 28.62 1 5 Surely his performance has been below par, and selectors have done the right thing by dropping him . His mantra in life is still ‘ seen ball, hit the ball’ but an older, wiser Virender Sehwag has admitted mellowing down just a little bit when he goes out to bat. Making a comeback is even tougher for him , because of the performances from new blokes like Pujara and Dhawan . But Sehwag is known for doing impossible things. He just needs to re access his batting I predicted a long time ago he will start struggling from age 32 or so, in tests. Simply because he has such poor technique, and that’s the age when the hand-eye coordination starts deserting you. And when the hand -eye coordination starts going, you need a solid technique to save you, and prolong your career. Sehwag doesn’t have anything else to fall back on or save him. He’s always only relied heavily on his hands and eyes. The same happened with Herschelle Gibbs. But still there are people who have trust in him . He still has lots of runs in him, provided he goes back to the drawing board and sorts his issues out. Will he make a comeback like his skipper Dada in the mid 30’s ? Only time will tell. Until then , go to youtube and watch your favourite sehwag’s innings are relive the moments .
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 20:38:40 +0000
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