Sehwag needs to bat more carefully

Virender Sehwag is one of the most destructive batsmen in the world. Probably the only player whose strike rate is above eighty across all three formats of the game. He is a batsman who is known to reach batting landmarks like 100, 200 or even 300 by hitting a six!

Sehwag who made his debut vs South Africa in 2001, scored 100 while batting at No.6 in that match. As he was doing well as an opener in ODIs, Ganguly and John Wright thought of giving the role of opener to Sehwag even in tests and he started opening the inning even in tests since India’s England Tour of 2002. Since then as opener he has scored 7889 Runs of 159 innings at a staggering strike rate 0f 83! Out of his 22 centuries, 21 have come while opening the innings including two triple hundreds scored against Pakistan and South Africa in 2004 and 2008 respectively.

All these years, he has been giving India a very quick start. He takes the full advantage of test match’s field placements and has been scoring the runs quickly. But in the process, he has also got out cheaply playing a rash shot. He hasn’t really been careless but he has been carefree. Since 2002, Sehwag has opened the innings with many partners but that didn’t change the way he used to play. If Sehwag plays even 10 to 15 overs, India’s score would be more than 50-60 Runs. He had the license to go for the kill as Indian team had a great batting line that involved Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman.

But now the things have changed. Out of these four legends, 3 have retired. Now Indian team’s middle order isn’t as strong as it used to be. The likes of Pujara, Kohli and Raina have shown that they can do well in tests but still there is a long way to go for them. So it is very important that Sehwag plays carefully and tries to stay for a longer period of time. It doesn’t mean that he needs to start blocking the deliveries like Dravid or Kallis but has to make sure that he doesn’t throw his wicket away. He needs to be more patient and should wait for bad deliveries to punish them. These days he tries to score off good deliveries and even the deliveries bowled way outside off stump. He has been scoring runs like this but also getting out in the process and now the team can’t afford to lose him cheaply. In the ongoing Test against New Zealand in Bangalore, he got out to Bracewell and was caught at Square Leg. The delivery was bowled on his pads and it was there to be hit, but at the same time he should had made sure that he keeps the ball grounded so that even if it had gone to the fielder, he could have continued to bat.

Suddenly from 5^th and 4th, Sehwag is now 2^nd most senior batsman after Sachin in the team and he has to play the role of a sheet anchor. There have been talks among the former cricketers of putting Sehwag in the middle order but I feel the way he plays, the hardness of a new ball helps him a lot, he hits it really hard and new ball goes rushing past the fielders. What we want from Viru is to play more carefully to give India a solid start and to make sure that when guys like Pujara or Kohli come to bat, India isn’t one or two wickets down with not too much on the scoring board. India will be playing against England and Australia, the teams with much better bowling attacks in next few months. So it will be important for the team’s success that its 2^nd most senior batsman is there on the wicket for a longer period of time and scores more runs.