A day before the Ranji Trophy final was to begin in Mumbai early this year, a couple of journalists walked up to Virender Sehwag, the Delhi captain, and asked him to speak about his batting. With a lost look on his face, he replied: “Meet me in the evening. If I’m in the mood, I’ll talk.”

To a stranger, he may have sounded arrogant. But to those who’ve watched him closely, it wasn’t surprising. As one of his team mates back then said in jest, “there was no disrespect meant. It’s just that he simply didn’t care.”

In recent days, few cricketers have been closer to Sehwag than Gambhir. Right from their Ranji campaign, which they won, to hammering teams in the Asia Cup, he’s been watching from the other end. From February 2007 till the match against Sri Lanka yesterday, the duo have opened for India as many as 14 times. They have already notched up four century partnerships and five others more than 50. In the last 27 one-dayers, regardless of whether he’s opened with Gambhir or not, Sehwag has amassed 994 runs.

Form of his life

In fact, the numbers suggest that the right-hander is going through the best phase in his nine years of international cricket, his average shooting up to a career-high 43.25.

India’s mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton is known to be a tech-savvy man and his methods include illuminating the Indian dressing room with a computer screen constantly replaying what players do on field. One cannot be sure whether Upton has managed to tie Sehwag down to a chair to watch it though. Of late however, Upton has been repeatedly spotted having long conversations with the opener. When Kirsten was asked what messages Upton was passing on, he said, “They’re just getting to understand each other better,” says Kirsten.

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