A Bull Even in Bearish Phase!

What a pity. Sehwag deserved to break Brian Lara’s record for his sheer audacious stroke-play and remarkable confidence. Still, to be counted among the holy trinity – other two being Bradman and Lara – as the only cricketers to have surpassed 300 runs twice should be counted as a truly historic event in Indian cricket.

For last seven years, Sehwag has represented the breed of new Indians. Prepared to take career-threatening risks to promote that very career. He has been bullish all along – whatever be the stakes, whatever be his stock, and whichever be the opposition.

Strange that this man averages above 50 and still finds criticism coming his way after every few failures. Contrasts this with someone like Fleming, who finished his test career averaging just 40 and still gets more respect for his technique. Come on, technique is a very vague concept in modern day cricket, which has become all about scoring runs. Crowd come to watch Chauke, Chakke, and not one good leave after another. Dravid played his part yesterday, but was never appreciated. One only has to see three quick wickets falling today morning to assess his contribution. But that is today’s cricket, and Sehwag fits in perfectly.

Agreed that Sehwag has scored most of his runs in conditions tailor made for batsmen. But then one must also not lose of the fact he was almost pushed into opening just to break into a batting side which boasted of stars like Tendulkar, Dravid, Sourav and Laxman. And one must not forget his two great series in Australia including the one in 2003-04, when he opened with such distinction with Aakash Chopra.

One must acknowledge that Sehwag has done what even a great like Laxman could not do -- open with success. That will be the best way to appreciate what makes him what he is.

Just think of India in this match without Sehwag. Probably South Africa would have been batting this time, and thinking of what target to set for India on the fourth evening. He stole that satisfaction.