A series against Sri Lanka is underway in Dambulla. The upcoming young Indian sensation Ravichandran Ashwin has been bowling beautifully against the likes of Sachin Tendulkar in the practice session ahead of the match. At a time when Ashwin is cementing his place in the Indian team by achieving a handful of outstanding achievements such as Man of the Series in T20 tournaments including the IPL. Now it's his turn to bowl against him, against Veeru.
First ball, outside off stump, cut to a boundary. On the second ball off stump, that too was cut for a boundary, Ashwin bowled the next balls to middle stump and leg stump respectively, the result was not the same, he cut it again to the boundary, with the feeling that he had to keep all the disappointment, sadness and shame inside and beat the next ball, Ashwin bowled a fuller. Veeru's reply was a six by stepping out.
It was too much for Ashwin and he had to ask Sehwag, who was playing with the ease of a ten-year-old schoolboy, what he needed to do to make his bowling better, to which Veeru's response was amusing. "Hey man, I don't even count off-spinners as bowlers, they haven't been able to trouble me yet. If it's an off-spinner I'll hit them for a six on the off-side, if it's a leg-spinner I'll hit them on the leg-side." That was Virender Sehwag!
"I don't care who you are, I'll play as I like" - that was his attitude! "No matter how good and experienced you are, He can kill your attitude.." - If the prince of speed really had to say this even with Brett Lee, one can only imagine the impact that man made among the bowlers. See the ball and hit it, that's all his one-line cricket book taught him. Sehwag, a die-hard fan of Sachin, who came to the team with Sachin's lookalike and similar style of play, was greeted with curiosity by the cricket world and was even evaluated by the fans as an exact carbon copy of Sachin.
But as time went on, one thing came to light, Veeru has his own style, a unique style that no one can copy, no one can change, what makes Sehwag different? Excellent eye-hand coordination, that was his strength, minimal footwork and excellent bat lift. The truth is, he didn't believe much in a technically perfect way of caressing the ball and releasing it, see and hit. That was Sehwag in one word. Sehwag lacked the technical batting class of Dravid, the runs of Sachin Tendulkar and the consistency of Virat Kohli.
What sets Sehwag apart is his guts, his stroke play, his unfettered ability to get big scores at speed by attacking the bowlers right from the start with an imperfect, limited technique at hand. His batting was a visual treat for cricket itself. By that time, Veeru had created a style that was so sane as to stop the TV if Sachin got out and say, Saramilla Sevagundlo.
I have seen every top batsman slow down or play cautiously in the 90s, 190s, 290s, but Sehwag was completely different. His courage to go for big shots even when approaching major milestones has always amazed me. His career has been pushed through without an element of selfishness, even though he probably knows it only when those around him are reminding him of personal records. He was like that. A man who says – and does – that he bats only in his natural style, no matter who he is at the bowling end. An unstoppable storm at the crease.
Be it the slow, turn-filled flat pitch of India or the fast track rich in pace and bounce in Melbourne, his only thought is to score every ball, dominate the bowlers from the start and destroy their rhythm. Shout out to the cricketing world that offense is the greatest defense. Ayaal had succeeded beyond any limit in that. The statistical records he had made proved it.
At one time fans and opposing team could hope or predict to some extent about the four men who were part of Indian team's fabulous five namely Sachin, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman. They may even be able to pull Sachin into a tactical defense by losing the wickets of their companions early on, but even there, the phenomenon of Sehwag stood in front of the opposition as a phenomenon without an answer. Perhaps their game plan is to wait for Veeru to make a mistake. A fearless mentality where the fielder stops at Thad Man to trap him, bounces outside the off-stump, hooks the bowler who asked the question for a six over Thad Man and then asks what the next question is.
A major allegation leveled against Sehwag by cricket experts and journalists in his early days was suspicions about his imperfect technique. Because of this technical draw back, they tried their best to brand him as a home track bully, likely to be confined to the flat pitches of India, but he dismissed their arguments by scoring centuries in fast and bouncy Australia, Melbourne, Adelaide and Trent Bridge.
Unlike the conventional batting methods of starting from defense and gradually joining the game, a different and parallel batting style started by Vivian Richard with an emphasis on total attack was later adopted by Jayasuriya, Sidhu, Gilchrist etc. but it was seen with all its wildness and beauty when Sehwag was at the crease. He made no attempt to vary his instinctive batting patterns under the pressure of the circumstances. The true fact is that to some extent it contributed to his success and failure.
Sehwag shattered the notions of Indian Test batting till then by scoring a triple century against arch-rivals Pakistan in Multan to achieve the feat of becoming the first triple century by an Indian. Sehwag's first triple century was a muted reply to cricket pundits who claimed that his maiden triple was just a fluke from minimal footwork, taking advantage of the home tracks. .
