A legend in the making?

By Rajadhyax

After ten thousand runs in Test cricket and over 25 centuries to go with, say, ten more thousand in ODIs anyone will call that batsman a legend. But when we see a legend in the making well before those numbers, prudence is in standing up and taking notice. It is sensible to go on record saying that here is a man about to become a legend. Sometimes not just the numbers but the way a player gets there also shows you that the guy has enough class to be as visible as Statue of Liberty. I am willing to put up my hand to make one such statement today about a man whose batting we have all come to admire. One man whose sheer ability to destroy the bowling under all sorts of conditions makes him a grade-one entertainer to say nothing of his batting audacity.

Two triple centuries, six double hundreds, seventeen centuries and nineteen half-centuries the man has scored in Test cricket at a marvellous average of 52.50 so far. He aggregates 6248 runs in Tests at the last count and he narrowly missed a third triple century recently while playing for India against Sri Lanka. Yes, we are talking about Virendra Sehwag, whose Test match strike rate (of 80.44) is something that quite a few batsmen in world would take even as their ODI strike rate. Then add to all that his ODI record too. 11 centuries, 35 fifties and an aggregate of 6730 runs till last count with a phenomenal strike rate of 102.09. And don’t forget, all these stats will change drastically if the guy maintains fitness and plays another year of international cricket.

Just to make his case stronger he even bowls cunning off-breaks and is known to break long winding partnerships quite often for his skipper. There have been occasions when he has turned the off-spin more than regular ‘offie’ Harbhajan Singh. Allegedly, there is even an inside joke in the team that he must be teaching Harbhajan how to turn it more. Sehwag already has 30 wickets in Test cricket, where he has bowled less and 87 wickets in ODIs indicating that in ODIs at least he must be taken seriously as a bowler.

Shockingly for such an accomplished batsman only his T20 record is yet to show great prowess. The remaining two forms of the game, the man has surely mastered. And his Test cricket record surprises some people, though a trifle unnecessarily. Actually there need not be any surprise on that one. Note that there is a method to his madness. In Test cricket the field is mostly “in” and he is able to take his favourite aerial route as often as he wants. On his day he can keep hitting into the orbit, if required over the top and it does not matter whether the wicket is a quick one in Australia or a dead one in Pakistan. Incidentally it also does not matter whether the bowler’s name is M.Murlidharan or Brett Lee.

And it’s not just the statistics that makes me call him a burgeoning legend. Look at the way he hammers bowlers in international cricket. He can plays shots all around the park. He can cut, pull, drive and flick with absolute abandon. He can stroke the ball fluently off his front and back foot. Apart from a rasping hook shot, there is no shot in the book that he does not play with confidence. And he hits spinners and pace men alike with very little to choose between them. To add to all that he has his own style. Admittedly he does not go by the coaching manual. In fact he is the batsman that a youngster dreaming to become an opening batsman should not see too much. There is very little foot movement in his batting. He mostly depends on extra-ordinary hand-eye coordination, very quick reflexes and superlative timing that is almost unmatched in world cricket right now. There is a big back-lift and a matching follow through. When the ball catches the middle of the blade it blazes to the boundary or over it on grounds of all sizes and shapes. Now tell me, if a man does all of that consistently and notches the aforementioned statistical figures, shouldn’t we acknowledge that we are seeing something special.

Yes, the doubting toms will tell you of a weak point in his fortress. They say that he is susceptible to short pitched stuff directed towards his rib-cage and neck. And may be, to a very small extent he is uncomfortable if a genuine pace bowler does that regularly while bowling 150 kph. But then tell me which batsman in the world is supposed to be very comfortable with that sort of a bouncing ball. Ganguly has had his problems with such stuff. Azharuddin had problems of that kind. Matt Hayden looked awkward many times in his career if given that music at the start of his innings. For God’s sake even Sir. Donald Bradman was found poorly equipped when that kind of bowling started under the ‘bodyline series’. Need we say more? So forget about all that and let’s sit back and enjoy the years to come. Sehwag is only 31 right now. The next six to seven years promise a lot of entertainment from him.