Virender Sehwag has bid adieu to International cricket a few days back. Like the man
himself, the announcement came abruptly. No press conference, no farewell
match, no fuss. The media (including social media) is full of articles on him.
There is a glut of Sehwag nostalgia all around. It feels as if cricket fans are
realizing that maybe they were guilty of never fully grasping the worth of his
achievements while he was around. Perhaps he was not taken as seriously as he
should have been. Partly it was due to the fact that Sehwag never took himself
very seriously. He batted with an air of nonchalance. He didn’t show too much
emotion whether he scored a triple hundred or a first ball duck, whether he got
the captaincy or not. Also, he had to share the limelight with the other
batting giants of his time, Sachin & Dravid and to a lesser extent with
Ganguly and Laxman.
In the last
2 years of his Test career, when he lost form and was frequently seen throwing
his wicket away when the team was in the middle of its worst run of losses, the
Indian Cricket fan became somewhat disillusioned with him. It appeared as
if he doesn’t really care. But we forgot that he was always like that. It is
just that those shots which used to thrill us, were not coming off anymore. In
IPL also it was mostly hit and miss except for one vintage hundred. That was
our last memory of Sehwag till his announcement that he is hanging his boots.
All of a sudden it dawned on us that we will never again witness another Sehwag
special.
Now that it
is all over, we can do a dispassionate analysis of his place in Indian Cricket
and Cricket in general.
Let me
start by saying that when the history of Cricket is written (say) fifty years
from now, Sehwag ‘s name will figure in it. Mind you, many batsmen who have
scored far more runs than him, have more centuries than him, have better
averages than him, maynot be there. But Sehwag will be there. This is for the
simple reason that he completely redefined the role of a Test opener. The
wisdom distilled over more than 100 years of Test cricket said that the
requirements for a good Test opener are –
Solid Technique
Ability to build an innings
Ability to leave balls outside
off stump
Be watchful in the beginning of
the innings.
Ability to patiently gauge the
bounce and movement before playing shots
Ability to blunt the bowling
attack, Bat till the shine is gone even if few runs are scored
Cut out the risky shots as the
more shots you play the less chance of staying at the wicket longer
These were
the time tested requisites for a good Test opener. For more than 100 years any
opener not conforming to these met with little success. The epitome of these
principles of batsmanship were Sunil Gavaskar and Geoffery Boycott.
Sehwag’s
style and approach made a mockery of these principles. But amazingly he
frequently racked up 150 plus scores, many double hundreds and became the first
and only Indian triple centurion. He actually has 2 triple hundreds in Tests. He has 4 scores of 250 plus in Tests. The only other man to do this is Sir Don (Bradman). He played shots from the first ball and
was in the fourth gear from the start. And his pace never slowed whether he was
in the 90’s, 190’s or 290’s. In fact most often he brought up his hundred,
double hundred or triple hundred with a premeditated six.
This was
all the more remarkable because when he was a teenager learning to bat, the
‘Gavaskar School of Batsmanship’ was firmly established in India. There were an
array of players who took inspiration from Gavaskar (and rightly so), but he
was not influenced at all and never felt the need to change his approach.
Hence like
Adam Gilchrist, who redefined the role of a wicketkeeper batsman, his place is
cricket history is secure.
It is quite
an achievement for someone who never saw himself as a Test player at the start
of his career. He would have been happy just to cement his place in the ODI
team. In fact when I saw him in his first few ODI innings, I thought he didn’t
have the temperament and technique for an ODI opener. He had a slam bang style
and played too many shots. One has to give credit to Sourav Ganguly that he had
the vision to see him as a Test player. It was a stroke of genius. Sehwag
sealed it with a hundred on debut, that too in tough batting conditions in
South Africa. For this Sehwag is eternally grateful to Ganguly. It won’t be
wrong to say that, had there been no Ganguly, there would have been no Sehwag,
the Test player.
His
complete disregard for records and statistics was also a breath of fresh air.
Personal milestones were such high priority for most Indian players that they
would slow down in the 90’s, even in slog overs in ODI’s. This would cost India
the match many times. This practice had become so firmly entrenched that the
cricket fans actually pardoned the players for this selfish approach. Sehwag
changed all that. The most famous example of this was his dismissal for 195 on
Day 1 of the Sydney Test in 2004 while trying to hit a six. Boycott and Shastri
were in the commentary box. Sir Geoffery was aghast, ‘He just threw away the
chance of getting into the record books. Just imagine getting a double hundred
on the first day of a Sydney Test. I just don’t get this’. Shastri replied, ‘He
is Sehwag, not you, Sir Geoffery!! That’s how he plays and that’s how he got to
195 in the first place!’.
It was this
bravado and gay abandon which thrilled the whole country and sometimes also led
to complete despair.
Sehwag in
full flow was a sublime experience. He reminded one of Viv Richards. This is
high praise indeed. It is somewhat like the great Don (Bradman) telling Sachin
that his batting reminded him of himself.
But on the
flip side when it didn’t come off, Sehwag could look absolutely ridiculous as
well. I remember in the disastrous England tour of 2011, when the team really
needed him to contribute he got a King Pair in one of the Tests, playing
outrageous shots. In the last couple of years of his Test career, the ‘sublime’
became less and less and the ‘ridiculous’ was on display more often.
Also sad
was the fact that he didn’t give top priority to fitness. At just 33 or 34
years of age when most modern batsmen are at their peak, his reflexes were becoming
visibly slower. His batting technique with which he created magic was based on
his hand and eye coordination. He hardly bothered to move his feet too much.
Once his reflexes slowed down, this directly impacted his shot making. Still he
didn’t change anything in his technique or approach to adjust to this.
The big scores were becoming few and far between. A streaky 20 or 30
became the norm. He just could not reverse the slide.
His batting
was based on pure simplicity , ‘See it, hit it’. He was never one to
overanalyze his technique or adapt to different situations like say a Dravid or
a Tendulkar would do. As long as the eye and the body supported him, he
continued to reel off those big hundreds at unbelievable pace. But once the
reflexes slowed, it became clear that he was on a downward spiral. Hence the
decision to retire at 37 is all the more wise. Clearly there was no way back to
those heady days. Prolonging it would have been painful for him as well as for
his legion of fans.
One
frequently wondered what he would have done if only he thought more about his
batting, made some changes to his approach later in his career, cared more for
the records. But then, he would not have been the Sehwag we know, he would
never have played those audacious shots. He would not have been the joy to
behold. The key to enjoying Sehwag was to accept the sublime with the
ridiculous. I must admit while he was playing I struggled to do this. And I am
sure many other cricket fans too did the same. Hence the outpouring of
nostalgia now that he has called it a day.
On his day,
he treated Dale Steyn, Murali, Shoaib Akhtar, James Anderson, Warne and most top
bowlers of his era with utter disdain. And there were many many such days that
we have enjoyed thoroughly. For the sheer pleasure he has given cricket fans
the world over, he is a hard act to follow. It is difficult to imagine a
greater match winner for India in Tests in the last 15 years.
One can say
this with complete certainty, there will never be another ‘Nawab of
Najafgarh’.
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