Virender Sehwag's massive impact on Indian cricket

As an Indian cricket supporter, it is disheartening to see the way India have performed in the ongoing Test series against England. The way that the batters have performed has not been up to the mark and this has been the trend for a long time now. Whenever India play outside the subcontinent, the top order has not been able to build a strong platform for the middle and the lower middle order, resulting in below-par team totals.

All of us would remember the golden phase of Indian cricket under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and even Rahul Dravid when the team more often than not was able to put up decent totals giving the bowlers enough runs on the board and allowing them to attack for longer periods of time. Virender Sehwag was the one batsman who had a massive hand in that. His aggressive approach did not let bowlers bowl to one line and length which we see happening regularly against the Indian batters now.

This makes life difficult for the top order batters and in countries like England and South Africa where there is always something happening for the seamers, one is bound to get the delivery from which he nicks off. This is where Sehwag stood out from the rest. Even his 40s and 50s were so effective that the likes of Dravid, Sachin and the rest had the chance to make big scores.

Sehwag had an average of 44.66 outside India which clearly shows his contribution towards the success that India had. People like Sehwag come once in a century, there is no denying that. To be able to bat with such a mindset every time and in every condition and succeeding without having the best of techniques shows how special a player he was. One interesting stat is that he batted with a strike rate of 81 outside India which is stunning.

There is another aspect of his game which had a tremendous effect on the opposition team. The way he played the spinners was magnificent. We have recently seen Indian batters struggle against spinners, especially off-spinners. The likes of Moeen Ali and Nathon Lyon have troubled the top order on pitches where there has not been much help for the spinners. Virender Sehwag effectively took spinners out of the game with his approach to batting.

It remains to be seen if any of the batsmen can develop into such a match-winner for India in Test cricket outside the subcontinent.