Karachi, July 4: 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.

In an interview to The Indian Express, Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif had once claimed that if there was any Indian batsman he and his team mates felt most comfortable bowling to, it was Sehwag. “He just doesn’t move his legs,” Asif had said.

With or without moving his legs, Sehwag has managed close to 400 runs in his last nine matches against Pakistan. In the Asia Cup here and in the Bangladesh tri-series before that, Sehwag has batted at a strike-rate of more than 100 in all his matches — knocks that included a century, two half centuries and scores of 49, 42 and 36.

MS Dhoni, the Indian captain, is obviously a happy man. “When you have your opener batting the way Sehwag is at the moment, life gets a lot easier.” So will he talk about his batting now? Gautam Gambhir, a friend, team mate and opening partner — in domestic and now international cricket — has interesting advice. “Try talking to him about anything but cricket,” he says with a cheeky smile.

The kind of form he is in, it’s more fun watching his bat do the talking anyway.