Sehwag - Caught in the middle

The rise of Virender Sehwag almost coincided with his role model going through a mid-career crisis. Sachin Tendulkar had been around for more than a decade and the time had come for him to change gear. An entire generation had grown up watching Tendulkar toy with an attack after getting the measure of it. He now went into a shell, to emerge a master planner drawing on his long years of experience. Gone was the force that would flatten everyone within its path. Tendulkar reinvented his game to suit an aging body. It was a move seen by many as a sellout, but it was one that lengthened his career and has paid off in the long run. 

Just when we had begun missing Tendulkar’s lofted shots and blazing square cuts, Sehwag filled that space in the public eye bringing a refreshing approach to the game. Not blessed with the technical proficiency of his role model, for Sehwag, every ball was there to be hit. There was just no room for clutter; a play and miss had to be forgotten as soon as the ball hit the keeper’s gloves. There would be no percentage cricket when he was at the crease; every stroke would have the force of his will behind it – a formula that was surprisingly more successful in the longer format of the game. 

But the man is at a crossroad now, where a Tendulkar-like reinvention beckons him. Noted cricket writer Peter Roebuck, in a column divides a top class batsman’s career into two phases: one, where a batsman is young and relies on his primal batting skills to score and second, when a few strands of grey hair tell him that a tickle past the wicketkeeper’s gloves is sometimes just as fruitful as a booming drive down the ground. The period in between these phases is when batsmen either wither away or learn their most valuable lessons. At 29, Sehwag is experiencing the same mid-career crisis that Tendulkar successfully managed to counter. And this series against South Africa could be the pivot on which the opening batsman’s fortunes could turn around. 

The fact that Sehwag shares the dressing room with the little maestro is bound to rub off on his thought process. Sehwag’s 151 in the 4th Test at Adelaide is already a case in point. The innings had just 13 hits to the fence, a rather modest figure by Sehwag’s standards. Compare that to the 25 fours and 5 sixes he hit en route to his 195 at the MCG in 2003 and you will know the difference. The Sehwag that had turned out in 2003 had a point to prove to the world. In 2008, he has a clear choice between becoming a caricature of his former self or rewriting the rules of what it means to be Virender Sehwag.

Predicting Sehwag’s performances based on the nature of pitches has always been a futile exercise. Wickets in the subcontinent generally provide an ego boost to batsmen world over, and that should give Sehwag a reason to smile. But with the likes of Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini and Morne Morkel in their ranks, the Proteas arguably have an even more potent pace arsenal than the Australians. The South Africans know how to detect weak prey and will go for the kill. And it’s Sehwag who will have to be ahead of the game this time.