The Hindu : Sport : Sehwag needs to impose himself

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 07, 2005

Sport

Sport

Sehwag needs to impose himself

S. Ram Mahesh

He's an explosive player and a player who has done really well: Dravid

— Photo: V.V. Krishnan

MORALE LIFTER: India, which is low on confidence, needs the Sehwag magic in the coming matches.

Colombo: As the edge squirted off Tillakaratne Dilshan's bat like a wet watermelon seed squeezed between two fingers, past wicket keeper M.S. Dhoni's right ankle strap and into the vicinity of first slip, Virender Sehwag clicked his heels. But his hands failed to descend in time.

In the next match against the West Indies an edge burst through his hands, having had the briefest of meetings with fingers little, ring and middle.

Sehwag doesn't drop catches.

At least he rarely has in the past. Indeed an enduring memory of the man is his Matrix-like rise, his back arching, his right hand outstretched as the white ball met its conqueror. That the catch remains etched in the mind — gilt linings growing around it — while the match like most ODIs has faded into insignificance is a testament to its brilliance.

Sehwag's slow syrupy off-spin in this tournament has been given the treatment he's known to dish out. His foibles in the field and with the ball would have gone unnoticed — well, he would have had an extra catching session with coach Greg Chappell and may be a stern word from captain Rahul Dravid — if he were to have blazed away at the top.

But scores of 14, 2, and 32 have caused pundits to look for knock-on and trickle-down effects to see if his batting slump has manifested itself everywhere. "He's an explosive player and a player who has done really well," said Dravid. "He has been very consistent over the last year. He just started a bit slowly (but) was looking good in the last game.

"So, I'm hoping the confidence he got in the last game — he scored 30-odd runs — will help him and we'll see some big scores in the next two games."

A hope Indian fans will pray for. For if Dravid has been Indian batting's steel-reinforced spine, Sachin Tendulkar its soul, Laxman its heart and Ganguly its guts, Sehwag has been its messiah, its deliverer.

In his excellent essay titled "The Sehwag Effect", which appeared in the April edition of Wisden Cricket Asia, Rahul Bhattacharya called Sehwag "the emancipator, the freer of minds". An excellent point, an intangible derived from other intangibles and the tangibles of his Test batting average and strike rate.

Mind-boggling

But Sehwag's ODI record like Adam Gichrist's pales in comparison with his Test record. He averages 32.36 with a strike rate of over 95 in ODIs (the Australian wicket keeper's corresponding numbers are 36.08 and 95.36). To put it in perspective, an average of 40 in the instant format is considered special.

His Test figures — an average of 55.98 and strike rate of 72.63 to Gilchrist's 54.73 and 83.42 — boggle the mind. It's weird that his frenetic methods haven't brought him the same degree of success he's enjoyed in the longer version, in the hit-and-giggle-and-wink version.

A closer look at his stats and the incongruity disappears. The man from Najafgarh has played 116 ODIs, of which India has won 59. In these matches he has scored six of his seven hundreds, 14 of his 17 fifties, and averaged 44.62. Moreover, he has taken 33 of his 55 wickets at an average of 30, ten less than his overall average.

India — low on confidence — needs Sehwag to impose himself on the matches to follow. Did the slowness of the Dambulla pitches prevent him? "Wind was a factor in Dambulla, not the wickets," said Sehwag. Will he do anything different? "No. I'll play as I have."

And that's why opposing captains in the times to come will sleep less soundly.

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