Opinion Its the Sehwag way
He swings between a golden duck and a double hundred
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Its the third one-dayer against the West Indies in Ahmedabad. Virender Sehwag takes strike for the first time in the game. Eyes focus,legs root to the ground,willow kisses the wall of his shoe. Its a loosener,a terribly short ball sprayed outside the off-stump from Ravi Rampaul. He swipes at it away from his body without any footwork and the keeper does the rest. Duck,one ball,silence. Vintage Viru. Three days later,its the fourth game of the series in Indore. Sehwag leans into Rampauls first ball,fishes the ball from his pads and dispatches it to the midwicket fence. Four,one ball,chaos. Hours later,he has the highest ever ODI score. Surprised? Not at all,its vintage Viru.
No player has fused the two ends of the spectrum like Sehwag has in his decade-long career. In his batting,the vagaries of daily life are reflected better than in any other player in the history of the game. We groan when Tendulkar cannot put away an impending landmark,we scream if Dravid cannot stage a comeback and cry when Laxman is dismissed during a chase. They were expected to do it,and didnt. With Sehwag,anything he does is expected.
On one end,he averages 35 in one-dayers and has never understood a format created for him,T20. At the other,he is one of only four players to record two triple centuries in Tests and is Indias record holder for individual innings in Tests and one-dayers. His 219 against the Windies is the equivalent of a very competitive team score in the 90s. He is,in fact,the very epitome of Kiplings If: he often meets triumph and disaster and always treats those two impostors just the same. The big question is,how will history remember such a man?
A joke on Twitter summed it up best: Sehwag is the first human being to score an ODI double ton,for only God (aka Tendulkar) had done it earlier. In cricket today,there is the divine,and then there is Sehwag. At the post-match press conference,the human in question promptly went on to say that his double hundred was better than both his 300s in Test. It was a far cry from the politically correct answers of his colleagues that never belittle Test achievements over new-format knocks. Sehwag,though,says it as he sees it.
To be fair to Sehwag,he was always expected to score it. The man from Nafajgarh probably expected to do it every time he walked out to bat. For who else would have the confidence of calling for a referral the moment he was trapped plumb LBW for nought during the World Cup final in Mumbai? With Sehwag,the establishment is always wrong. This is the very reason why he always chirps the umpire when he believes the four was off his bat and not his legs,calls the DDCA corrupt and openly says the Bangladeshis arent good enough to scalp 20 wickets against India. With Sehwag,he just believes.
To understand Sehwag,you have to understand his Zen-like psyche. Players have made batting look easy with their ethereal techniques and sharp cricketing acumen,Sehwag is the only one who makes the game sound simple. At the first India-New Zealand Test at Ahmedabad last year,Sehwag nearly scored a hundred by lunch on Day One,and was out for 173 just before tea,and later said: I was humming happy songs,and I made a century. Then I got bored,and started feeling bad for the New Zealanders. So I started singing sad songs. The boredom got me out. Thats just the way Sehwag is.
In all walks of his life,it isnt ever about respect. He has none of it for tradition,bowlers,coaching manuals,administrations or conventions. With Sehwag,it is all about creating a niche of his own. He is unabashed about his all-or-nothingness. History will perhaps remember him as the man who made oppositions fear an Indian batsman. Gavaskar,Tendulkar,Dravid,the whole lot,they command respect. Viru commands unadulterated fear every time he walks out to bat. Its alright even if it results in a golden duck. He could very well score a double century in his very next game.
aditya.iyer@expressindia.com
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