The Phenomenon called Sehwagging !

Monday, 18 January 2010


An enormous amount of stuff has been written about Virendar Sehwag. When Rahul Dravid and later Kumble backed him for a place in the team in spite of poor form, a majority of people wanted him to be thrown out. But RD and AK knew what they were doing.

After all, we see Sehwag only on TV or only when he gets out to those stupid looking shots when the opposition is at his mercy. But the team-mates and especially the Captains know what they will be missing when Viru isn't playing.

Rahul Dravid once famously told him, "What do you plan to do in the dressing room after getting out? You are seeing the ball well, hitting it rather well and are trying to get out on a pitch like this? You will not be feeling nice when you sit there and others will come and make merry". They went on to add 400+ for the Opening wicket!

Sehwag is a rather simple guy. He once claimed, "I want to score the first 200 in ODIs". Since then he was struggling in ODIs, in spite of very decent form in tests. Wasim Akram then had quipped, "Why does he talk like this? He is putting unnecessary pressure on himself. He should stop talking and start concentrating on his batting"

Even today, Sehwag has a problem in ODIs. At the rate he scores his runs in tests, he becomes a big advantage to the team every time he bats for at least a session. But in T-20 and ODIs, we have seen him get out trying to manufacture shots. Why? A man capable of scoring nearly 300 runs in a day's play in test Cricket, can't duplicate the same kind of success in the shorter version.

In any form of Cricket, I don't remember seeing Sehwag struggling for runs and get out say for 3 runs of 28 balls or 7 runs of 49 balls. It has always been 16 of 14 or 27 of 18. That means just one thing, Sehwag more often than not, gets himself out. But why?

The answer is simple. He never bothers about the score or the score board or even the situation. Else he won't be reaching his 300 with a six. It was only when Greg Chappelle started to put a lot of pressure on him that he started floundering. Once Chappelle was out, Veeru was back to his own ways.

Dhoni too had a few problems with Veeru and actually preferred Robin Uthappa, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina over Sehwag during the T-20 World Cup in 2007. Things worked out rather well for Dhoni at that juncture. But Viru has come back strongly and stamped his authority and is a 'Must' player in all 3 forms of the game today.

It is preposterous of anyone to suggest to Sehwag how he should bat. If we accept his methods when he scores almost 300 in a day's play, we should learn to accept his 16 runs of 14 balls too. Nobody should try to change the way he thinks, the way he talks or the way he bats. Simply because, he is a 'Natural' that way. Let him be!

I remember one story from the Adelaide Test in 2003. Chasing 230 odd to win the test, Veeru and Akash Chopra came to bat on the final day. Adam Gilchrist wanted to intimidate the Indian batsmen. So he went and started staring at a rough patch on the pitch just outside the off-stump of the right-handers. And he started to look at Chopra and Veeru and again started to mumble something to himself. Chopra chose to ignore it. But when Gilly was at it again after the first over, Veeru walked towards Gilly and asked him, "Are you planning to dig a well here?". Gilly was thrashed through the point!

The second incident happened when he made his first triple century in Pakistan. After being driven through the off side throughout the day, Shoib Aqthar started bowling short to him repeatedly. And he started taunting Viru to 'Hook' him. When it reached beyond tolerable limits, Viru shot back, 'Tum bowling kar rahe ho, ya bheek maang rahe ho?' [Are you bowling or begging?]. Just like his straight drive over the bowler's head!

Another comment of Viru was during that 400+ partnership with Rahul Dravid. When asked about how did he feel about being on the verge of breaking Vinu Mankad and Pankaj Roy's partnership, Viru told, "I don't know anything about them or the record". Typical Sehwag slice over the third-man!

That is Virendar Sehwag phenomenon for all of us; Natural, Spontaneous and Absolutely Straight Forward over the 'Point'! And what will we call this Phenomenon? Sehwagging is the word !