Fearless Sehwag aims to get India off to good start

Virender Sehwag

NEW DELHI,  (Reuters) – Flawless hand-eye coordination  and a simple batting philosophy where half-measures have no  place allow Virender Sehwag to compensate for other shortcomings  and make himself invaluable to India.

Footwork is not his greatest strength, some of the shots he  routinely unfurls — such as the upper cut — are unconventional  and his single-minded approach to tearing apart every bowling  unit often renders him vulnerable.

India, though, will rely on the 32-year-old opener, who is  back in action after a shoulder injury, at the World Cup which  starts this month.
“He is so devastating,” West Indies great Viv Richards,  whose swagger was enough to unnerve many a gritty bowler, said  of Sehwag during a recent visit to Delhi. “India need him badly. I admire him. This guy is totally  fearless when it comes to batsmanship.”

Virender Sehwag

Sehwag once said that, apart from Australian Glenn McGrath  and Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan, he had not encountered a  bowler whom he could not hit for a boundary at will.

It would have sounded like bravado had anyone else uttered  those words but not Sehwag, an original on and off the field who  seems to have found a way to defy fame and all that accompanies  it to remain down to earth.

With a game tailor-made for the shorter format, Sehwag’s  modest one-day average (34.64) — considerably less than the  53.43 he boasts in tests — is an anomaly.

LIGHTNING PACE

The World Cup in the sub-continent provides a golden  opportunity to make amends and no one would be happier than his  captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni who knows how crucial the opener is  to the team’s success.

Much will depend on the kind of start Sehwag can give to his  team, partnering Sachin Tendulkar at the top.
What makes Sehwag such an impact player is not just the runs  he scores but also the lightning pace at which he scores them.
Asking the run rate is almost irrelevant when Sehwag is on  the crease and it does not take him long to change the  complexion of a match, something evident from his strike rate of  103.27.

More often than not, it is Sehwag who lays the foundation  for a big total or a successful chase with the kind of batting  that makes him arguably the most devastating batsman in  contemporary cricket.

A genuine match-winner with a penchant for reaching batting  milestones with a six, Sehwag is also more than handy with his  gentle off-spinners, as his 92 scalps from 228 ODIs would vouch.
A safe pair of hands in the slip, Sehwag’s presence among  the close-in fielders is reassuring for his bowling colleagues.