Aug 07 2009
A born entertainer
He is right now in the midst of a bleak period in his career. Undoubtedly though Virender Sehwag will return sooner rather than later to the glorious days when he was the Indiana Jones of Indian cricket – swashbuckling, entertaining and innovative, the time when he had bowlers pleading with their captain to take them off so that they could escape punishment from his punitive blade. The only Indian to hit a triple century in Tests, Sehwag is the kind of batsman who draws spectators into the stands and has cricket fans around the world rushing to their TV sets when he is batting.
But how did it all start? Well, Sehwag was born in New Delhi on October 20, 1978 and right from the beginning loved to hit the ball hard and high. Brought up in the Najafgarh area in west Delhi Sehwag made a duck on his Ranji Trophy debut in 1997-98 but thereafter he did not look back. The following season he scored 745 runs at an average of 62 with three hundreds and four fifties. This not only got him a berth in the North Zone team for the Duleep Trophy where he performed creditably but towards the end of the season he was also wearing India colours making his ODI debut against Pakistan at Mohali. He failed getting only a single and being hit for 35 runs in three overs but his talent was obvious and he was among the World Cup probables.
The 1999-2000 season was another fruitful one for Sehwag who had tightened up his technique to combine hitting with grafting if the situation arose. In the Ranji Trophy he again displayed his high scoring ability aggregating 674 runs at an average of 61 with two hundreds and three fifties. Outstanding in this impressive contribution was the knock against Punjab. In the face of a Punjab total of 530 for seven declared, Delhi were 241 for five when Sehwag entered. Thanks mainly to Sehwag, Delhi got to within three runs of the Punjab total with Sehwag last out for a typically swashbuckling 187 off just 175 balls. That was not the only innings that saw the selectors sit up and take notice of the new Sehwag. In the Duleep Trophy match against South Zone Sehwag amassed 274 off only 327 balls striking 36 fours and four sixes in the course of which he dominated a 381-run fifth wicket partnership with Rajiv Nayyar.
At the start of the 2000-01 season it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before Sehwag forced his way back into the Indian squad. Sure enough after the runs flowed in the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy tournaments Sehwag was in the Indian team for the ODIs against Zimbabwe. And within a matter of months he gave his first outstanding display at international level. In the first ODI against Australia at Bangalore in March 2001 Sehwag scored a breezy 58 batting with gay abandon against the bowling of Glenn McGrath, Damien Fleming and Shane Warne. He then surprised the Aussies with his loopy off-spinners and in quick succession he got the wickets of Matthew Hayden, Steve Waugh and Damien Martyn finishing with three for 59 from nine overs. His cup of joy was full when India won by 60 runs and he was adjudged Man of the Match.
By now it was acknowledged that Sehwag was excellent material for the shorter version of the game with his ubiquitous qualities but he seemed set in the middle-order. The absence of the injured Sachin Tendulkar however gave him the opportunity to open the batting and Sehwag was an instant success. A century off 70 balls against New Zealand at Colombo in August 2001 was a thrilling innings and one which prompted Tendulkar to make a congratulatory phone call. But for his first Test innings in South Africa some three months later he was back in the middle-order. All the same he made it a memorable debut. Coming in at 68 for four he hit a breath taking 105 out of a fifth wicket partnership of 160 runs with Tendulkar with whom he was being increasingly compared right from his gait and build to the batting style.
It was in England in 2002 that the team management got the bright idea of asking Sehwag to open the innings in Tests reckoning that if Kris Srikkanth could be a success, why not Sehwag. He was an instant hit with 84 in the first Test and 106 in the second. Thereafter not only was he well established at the top of the order but continued to play one swashbuckling knock after another. Indeed for Sehwag the coaching manual has just been a book full of theory and nothing else. He has been so artistically – and destructively – gifted that he authors his own book on the field of play. He’s been a throwback to the buccaneering days of Mushtaq Ali and Srikkanth. The same adjectives that were used to describe the swashbuckling exploits of these two cricketers – dazzler, conjurer, cricket’s Errol Flynn - can be well be applied to Sehwag. But there has been one very important difference – the figures associated with this kind of rip-roaring batting approach. Mushtaq Ali averaged 32 from eleven Tests. Srikkanth averaged a trifle under 30 in 43 Tests. These statistics are not unusual. There is always an element of risk in the devil may care approach. The stays at the crease are explosive, electrifying, enthralling - and short. Both Mushtaq and Srikkanth had just two centuries. But over a few years Sehwag’s average went well past the 50 mark with 12 centuries including a triple century and two double centuries. You don’t associate such figures with a cavalier stand and deliver batsman. Little wonder then that even Srikkanth while giving his expert comments on television frequently shakes his head in disbelief while describing Sehwag’s batting.
Sehwag is a batsman after one’s own heart for he produces match winning, crowd-pleasing knocks. A non-conformist Sehwag is perhaps the most confounding batsman of his generation. He has continued to bewilder bowlers and bewitch spectators. How on earth is a batsman who appears to be so fallible so consistent? The figures against his name certainly defy conventional logic. He has been able to bring off the most incredible shots with a perpendicular bat in the manner of classical stroke players. In a way his approach may seem to be outrageous but can one argue with success? And Sehwag and spectacular success have gone together for a long time. In his own inimitable manner he has carved out some method in his marauding ways and one senses that underneath that cavalier spirit, that devil may care attitude, that apparent casualness, is steel and purpose, ambition and a hunger for success.
Sehwag has certainly graduated from being a Tendulkar clone to a super star in his own right. Indeed Tendulkar himself is a big Sehwag fan. Remember the nice tribute paid by him to Sehwag after the triple hundred in the Multan Test three years ago? Tendulkar was batting with him for a major period during the knock and termed it “a fabulous innings.’’ Asked about any advice he gave him Tendulkar laughingly said “he hears me but I don’t know if he always listens to me. Very few guys in the world can manage that with this sort of stroke play. I am just glad he plays for our team. He can be a nightmare to play against.’’
Of course when it comes to one-day games Sehwag has been a law unto himself. Frequently the fate of the match has been decided in the first few overs itself as ‘The Nawab of Najafgarh’ has sailed into the bowling doing pretty much what he likes with it. The bowlers have been as helpless as a butterfly in a gale for whatever they try, Sehwag seems to have an answer – and generally it is a boundary, if not a six.
Over the last year or so Sehwag’s career graph declined alarmingly. Little went right for him but in keeping with his exalted status in Indian cricket, almost rivaling that of Tendulkar and Dravid, he was persevered with. Finally though the selectors had enough. First he was dropped from the Test team and then from the ODI squad. So now as he prepares for a comeback will there be a change in Sehwag’s approach? Will he like Tendulkar eschew risks and certain strokes and try and be more circumspect, more solid? Will he, now chastened after being dropped, alter his style to a comparatively more sober one? That will not be his natural game for Sehwag is a born stroke player, a born entertainer. Why, as recently as last year he came tantalizingly close to getting a century before lunch in a Test against the West Indies – he was 99 to be precise. Indications are that there will not be any change in Sehwag’s style in the
near future and if and when he comes back it will be the same dashing Sehwag that one has appreciated over the last half-a-dozen years.
