At six years of age, I first saw a player who was apparently the “new Sachin Tendulkar”—and I was told by many that Sachin was the greatest player of his generation, if not all time. But what I didn’t realise was that he wasn’t the “next Sachin” but rather the “first Virender Sehwag”. He was truly one of a kind—a cricketer no other generation witnessed.
Although Sehwag was no longer playing for India and there seemed nearly no prospect of him being recalled, the news that he had retired from cricket genuinely made me feel cheerless and made my eyes go moist, leaving a lump in my throat. He was a cricketer I watched and admired growing up. This feeling of a void left by a cricketer’s retirement can’t be explained in words. This just goes to show that “Viru” was more than a mere batsman whose innings one replays in one’s imagination, unlike most others who have played for their country. He meant so much more.
“Great” is a word that has been so liberally used in recent times for all those who departed from the game, gracefully or not. However, it is a fitting word to describe Virender Sehwag since he redefined the art of opening the batting. Watching him bat made you feel that he actually tamed the bowlers and not the other way around. His susceptibility and vulnerability in certain aspects notwithstanding, he dispatched all the best bowlers of his times and reduced them to the plight of being mere spectators on countless number of occasions.
Virender Sehwag, who was known for his audacious game right through his 14-year career at the international level, said that he would not have been the same player if he was playing in the current Indian team. Sehwag told reporters after his retirement: “My job was to score runs, and the opener’s role was to give the team a good start. Once it was done, I used to try to play my attacking game, score runs quickly and ensure that my team had a big total. And it was my duty to help the bowlers have more time to get the opposition out. That is what I have always tried to do”.
The Nawab of Najafgarh also spoke on the influence of all time greats like Rahul Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly and Laxman. “The biggest benefit as an opening batsman was that there was big and great players Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman to bat after me. Even if there was pressure situation, they could have handled well. But If I was playing now, I would not have been able to bat with so much freedom. The Indian team doesn’t have such great players who can handle the middle order. I consider myself lucky to have played as an opener with such great players in the middle order. That is one of the reasons that my batting style became fearless. I knew that the great players in the middle order were capable to handle pressure and help the team score runs”, he concluded.
Virender Sehwag’s bazooka, his bat, that extraordinary weapon that had blasted across various parts of the world in dazzlingly audacious manner, will no longer swing the way it did for close to 15 years. Here is a man who not only received countless compliments from his countrymen but also from people all across the globe, including legends like Sir Vivian Richards and Shaun Pollock. Famously, during one of the many promotional events before the 2011 World Cup, Sir Vivian Richards was asked who among Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Shane Watson and Virender Sehwag was the most feared batsman in the world. “Sehwag! There is no doubt about it. He is just so destructive. He is totally fearless. India needs him badly,” was the resolute reply. And boy did he perform well in India’s famous World Cup win. Apart from the final, he gave India great starts in each of the games and was instrumental in India’s historic triumph.
In the 138-year old history of Test cricket it was almost a given up until recently that a strike rate of 82 would be infeasible for an opening Test batsman, more so if he averages close to 50 over 104 matches. Mind you, the T20 fever came along towards the fag end of Sehwag’s career, so clearly this man never followed what was considered the norm, for the most part of his career. Instead, he was a revolutionary. We’re seeing the likes of Brendon McCullum, AB de Villiers and David Warner playing the way they are during this period but the one who did it when nobody even thought it was possible, was Virender Sehwag.
To show more clearly how unbelievable Sehwag’s achievements are, here’s a statistic. Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Matthew Hayden, Brian Lara, Sourav Ganguly are part of the list of some of the players who’ve racked up more than 10000 runs in ODI cricket. Not only that, they are part of the list who have done the same with a strike rate lower than what Sehwag managed to score in Test Cricket.
To average almost 50 across over 100 Tests playing as an opener in itself is an astonishing achievement but to do so at a strike rate of 82.33 is simply mind-boggling. Sehwag managed all that across eight and a half thousand runs, passing 300 twice and coming within two scoring strokes of a third triple ton. The aggregate and strike rate combination in ODIs also shows for his phenomenal success.
Sehwag wasn’t just a great batsman, but a great match winner. He won games for India on a regular basis across all over the world. Let’s make no bones about this fact; it’s fair to say that he was India’s greatest ever match-winner. But to Viru, it was just what he did. Leave him on the cricket field with a bat in his hand and he could do little else but score quickly and win his team matches.
VVS Laxman was recently said of Sehwag: “’Bratha (Viru always calls me that, for some reason), I know you made 281 in Kolkata, and it was a special knock. You missed a triple century; you should have gone on to make a 300. But I know I will make a triple-hundred for India in Test cricket.’ I was completely flabbergasted. Here was this young lad, a few one-dayers old, not really close to Test selection because the middle order-was packed, talking about making a Test triple! I was just amazed at his self-belief and self-confidence”
Didn’t Sehwag stay true to his word? He scored 309 in Multan against Pakistan in the historic 2004 series in which India triumphed and made a 319 in Chennai against South Africa in 2008. He became the first Indian to score a triple hundred in Test cricket and to this day remains the only one to do so. He is also one of the three players to score two triple hundreds, alongside Chris Gayle and Brian Lara.
He put no curbs on his intuition that told him that belligerence is the superior part of gallantry. The marvel was not only that he succeeded, but that he did it with flamboyance, panache, alacrity and élan that astounded his opponents. They could not comprehend how he could pull off so many stupendous innings, which swept many off their feet for the sheer impudence with which he tamed the best of bowlers.
It was unthinkable for the experts and coaches to deem that a man who would hardly move his feet and cared little about the do’s and do not’s of batting, could make runs in international cricket and do it on an unswerving rate. In this era of T20 cricket, where so many new strokes are being introduced that defy conventional batting techniques, Sehwag will always be remembered as a path-breaker who gave rise and hope to a new variety of cricketers: intrepid in mind, hassle-free in body and conquering the unimaginable.
The moment he went through a slightly lean patch a lot of advice and criticism came his way from both his team-mates and the ‘so-called’ experts from off the field, about moving his feet a little more, playing close to the body, among various other advice, but his confidence and self assurance in his own style of play was his chief asset. Had he paid much heed to what others were saying, he, in all probability, wouldn’t have become the Sehwag we were awestruck by so much. It was always his way or the highway.
He summed it up perfectly in the last line of his retirement announcement. He stated: “I also want to thank for all the cricketing advice given to me over the years and apologise for not accepting most of it. I had a reason for not following it—I did it my way.”
That line shows the kind of cricketer he was, all through his career: someone who left us all awestruck.
