Virender Sehwag, the Un-Opener

The ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’ did not possess a conventional technique: he pretty much played at everything. If he had a V, it ranged from point to square-leg. He wasn’t expected to succeed at the Test level. He definitely was not supposed to retire as one of the greats of the game. But he did.

When great batsmen have weaknesses, they learn to overcome them. When Sehwag saw a weakness in his technique, he simply turned it into an absolute strength. When just about everyone with a coaching manual was crying hoarse that Sehwag did not have the footwork to play on the front foot, he was busy getting beside the line of the ball and playing some of the fiercest cuts the game has ever seen.

Sehwag possessed a frighteningly simple outlook to the game. The last fifteen minutes of a Test match session would immediately bring the shell out for many a Test batsman. For Sehwag, though, it was an opportunity to catch tired bowlers off guard and milk 20 runs.

Similarly refreshing was his attitude to milestones. He would invariably try to reach them with big hits. While it brought upon his downfall on the odd occasion (like the 195 at MCG), it showed the power of an uncluttered mind. Earlier in that year, in the final of the 2003 World Cup, India were chasing a mammoth 360. India lost three quick wickets, including Tendulkar, but there was Sehwag – blasting away in his unique zero-risk belligerence. No bowler looked close to taking his wicket. He was run out for 82. It was as good an innings as Mahendra Dhoni’s epic 91 eight years later. But then, who remembers knocks played in lost causes.

Sehwag would set up many such victories for India. He had a penchant to score big hundreds. He is India’s only Test triple centurion, and one among only a handful of global batsmen to have scored two Test triple centuries and four other double centuries. He came close to recording a third triple ton when he scored 293 against Sri Lanka in Mumbai in 2009. Fourteen of his hundreds were scores of over 150.

But numbers just tell half the story. What was more telling was the impact he had on oppositions. Rival attacks were genuinely scared of what he could do. Even the most aggressive captains would bat that extra bit longer to ensure that the target they set can withstand a Sehwag blitz. In the fourth innings of Tests, the Sehwag threat materialised very rarely though, none more striking than in the emotional victory against England, chasing an improbable 387 set up by a rollicking Sehwag special and a Tendulkar ton.

Sehwag’s contributions at the top of the order propelled India on a golden run in Test cricket in the last decade. He was a run machine. He was also the lazy runner who could be run out wandering out of his crease or jogging into it.

In a world of sophistication which strove for perfection, he retained his rough edges. In a world of dour diplomacy, he spoke his heart at press conferences. And in a world which plays the forward defensive to a ball on off stump, he played the cut. The last remaining link to India’s incredible batting formation of the last decade is officially gone.

Goodbye Sehwag, one of India’s greatest, and one who did it his way.

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