Virender Sehwag: The Entertainer who made Cricket uncomplicated

Sehwag burst into the international scene with a 69 ball 100 against the Kiwis in Colombo

It is India vs New Zealand, at the low and slow pitch of Colombo. Indians have been set a target of some 260 odd runs in their allotted 50 overs which is quite a challenging total, given the conditions.

Sourav Ganguly comes out, and when you would be expecting a Dravid or a Laxman to open in the place of the injured Little Master, a guy looking similar to Sachin Tendulkar walks out. He walks to the crease, takes his stance and from thereon opens the curtain to declare the arrival of one of the most destructive batsman seen in contemporary cricket.

The 100 off 69 balls is a number which should never surprise you if you are watching a certain Virender Sehwag. He may have been a player who looked similar to Sachin Tendulkar in terms of height, the backlift, but then he played his own brand of cricket which not even the little master could replicate. It was probably his style of playing which made him different from others.

Sehwag formed beautiful partnerships with Ganguly and later with Sachin and Gautam Gambhir, but he was different. A player like Sehwag always gave you a chance, he didn’t care about the conditions, the pitches, he in fact never read them, never analysed them.

All he knew was that a ball, if meant to be hit, would be hit irrespective of the bowler bowling, the field set, the run rate. All those according to him were just the sidekicks playing their role in a show where he was the lead, he was the one who called the shots, even if the role could be called a cameo, he never failed to entertain.

Even today, a captain may not be able to tell you that in what manner could one get Sehwag out. The reason was, there was no manner possible in which he could have got out. It is pretty funny that in a game when a bowler would fancy his chances against Sehwag, it would be Sehwag who despite his limited footwork would not only create havoc but also play big innings and continue doing it for time immemorial.

Sehwag made cricket uncomplicated

One of the reasons behind Sehwag is his uncomplicated attitude towards not only Cricket but probably life too. Many a times we think a bit too much about things dear to us, we fear, which somewhere can make simple things complicated.

Sehwag was different. He never cared about the previous delivery. To him just like an arrow once released from its bow would never return, a delivery once gone is history. He never had to worry about what would come next, for he would face it just as the situation would demand. He somewhat went ahead with that attitude in his life too.

He was dropped when the going was tough, people questioned his game. He remained un-flinched, undeterred, and did what he did best. Made a comeback and probably one of the best comebacks ever. A modest 63 was followed by a fantastic 151 against Australia at Adelaide and he showed that he was a mortal who loved the game as much as anybody.

He never stopped after that. The 319 against South Africa followed and after a few innings a double century against Sri Lanka in their own den. Not to forget an 83 against Chennai, which was so good that England never had answers to that and a platform was set for India to make a chase of 387 look like a walk in the park.

There are plenty of innings where one can watch in awe thinking how could he play those shots. If Tendulkar was the surgeon, Sehwag was the butcher, if the former a poet mouthing his ghazals to take you to a different world, the latter was busy charting out his own numbers.

Sehwag’s style of cricket can never be replicated

The game will soon bid adieu to one of the greatest entertainers in the world, who played the game on his own terms. He played without any care in the world, didn't know who Vinoo Mankad was, could make any target look ridiculously easy, would sometimes pluck out catches from thin air which would put even the Pollards and Rhodes to shame.

That was Sehwag, an entertainer who made the game of cricket so uncomplicated, so simple to follow. He probably deserved a farewell much like his idol, Sachin Tendulkar, for not every day you see a batsman with zero technique still have an average of almost 50 in the longer version of the game with two triple centuries to his credit and a double in ODIs. Not every day would you find a batsman who has the guts to step out and hit Saqlain Mushtaq for a six when on 295.

As another great player gets ready to walk into the sunset, it is time that BCCI ponders on how it has treated its heroes. Dravid and Laxman never asked for it. Zaheer never got it and Sehwag will soon join the list, but Sehwag being the man he is wouldn't care.

He will wake up to live his life and without any care in the world. Retirement is just another chapter which has to happen, he will concentrate on what is to come next, he will continue to live his life just the way he played his cricket, in a simple manner. While history got richer with the theatrical displays by Sehwag, the game just got poorer without him.