VIRENDAR SEHWAG – THE LORD OF 22 YARDS( Sports-cricket)

VIRENDAR SEHWAG – THE LORD OF 22 YARDS

Aggression is the article of faith. From the word go, it is adventure unlimited. Living on the edges of experience on the brown strip of battle in grassy green, Virendar Sehwag, like an oracle possessed loves to pound the opposition to the knees. This genial cricketer with humble demeanour reflects the transformation of the cricket as a game in India and elsewhere. From the secluded Nawabi pastimes, the voyage cricket took to the popular consciousness and mass attention for the last many decades is signified by the arrival of heroes like Sehwag from the native soil with indigenous upbringing.

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He is the darling of the cricket loving Indian. After Sachin Tendulkar, he is now the Hero No.1. Virendar Sehwag captures the imagination of the cricketing nation by his matchless audacity and murderous boldness. While on song, he is the daredevil willow-wielding genius with reckless passion for the game. He is the ruthless marauder who enjoys demolishing famed and celebrated attacks. He does make mistakes. But once he got his eye in, Sehwag is simply unstoppable and unbeatable.

It is with his advent, the democratisation or de-elitisation of cricket that began with Kapil Dev seems completed. The local flavours brought into the game by this Hindi speaking Jat from Delhi was the much needed dose that the ordinary fans of cricket badly wanted to relate with the game. Playing strokes, which are totally out of the cricket coaching manuals, Virendar Sehwag introduced many subaltern shots of wild fancy and reckless abandon into cricket lexicon. This passionate approach untouched by hypocrisy is typical of the cultural settings from which a person hails.

Not alone Sehwag, the young bunch of players like Pathan, Zaheer Khan & Kaif represents the spirit of rustic India. The character of that spirit is embedded and inbuilt in the action and belief system of these players. They don’t belong to the upper side of the great Indian divide. Rise of these small town boys represents the percolation of mass interest in the game. It shows the ability of the Other India to respond to the challenges. It is when challenges are thrown, a player like Sehwag likes to hang loose.
Sehwag belongs to the tribe of Adam Gilchrist and Sanat Jayasurya, for whom bashing the ball to the fence is not an option, but a ritual and religion. They bring a carnival mood to the stands by rewriting the art of aggression. Being a prominent member of that school, Virender Sehwag, loves to unsettle the bowlers off their natural rhythm. “I cannot resist playing my shots,” he once said. “I know there are situations when I might invite criticism with a loose stroke but I cannot shed my natural game. I would not be half the batsman that I am if I allow the situation to dominate. I have a bat in my hands and that to me is a weapon to destroy the bowler. You win some, lose some,” he said on one occasion while explaining his style of play. “Aggression at the start can give the right message,” says Sehwag, who enjoys playing his shots regardless of the situation. A pull off the first short ball or a pre-determined square-drive are some of Sehwag’s methods to perturb the bowlers.
Poetically speaking, aggression is the declaration of freedom -a disinclination to be shackled and defined by the situation. Aggression by a batsman carries the signature of a spirit that seeks joy of creativity in every action. Exploding with the beauty of sheer power, an attacking batsman is stretching the limits of possibility. By hoisting a straight six off a good ball, batsman is declaring his independence and launching himself into the creative sphere of existence. It is like scoring an impossible goal from a zero angle in a football match. In the case of Sehwag, aggression is not borrowed. It comes naturally to him and is the manifestation of his refreshing freedom and fearlessness in the middle. “I like to compete,” says Sehwag.

But the team interest is predominant in his calculation. ‘Viru’, as Sehwag is affectionately called by his team-mates, is a kind of guy who never reaches late for practice sessions. For a man who was thrust with the opener’s slot, he has not only accepted the job in the team’s interests but has made remarkable progress in the slot to become its key member. “It feels nice to be an important part of the team. I’ve always longed for such a responsibility,” he confesses. He has the sanction of team management to stick to his natural game. “That’s the way he plays and it suits us because he has the ability to ruin the attack,” says Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly. When he is around, the bowlers often switch from an aggressive mode to a defensive one, and this takes the pressure off the other batsmen.

Purists and sophisticated may disagree with this man from Najafgarh, one of the rustic outposts of Delhi. The technically correct classical cricket theorists will turn in their graves when he hooks and pulls with merry, defying the conventional wisdom of the aged and outdated cricketing manuals. He demolished the myth that technique is paramount for a batsman to succeed at the highest level. “I don’t read books on cricket but I don’t miss an opportunity to watch and learn,” he admits. He may not be much bothered about the science of the sport, but the art of attacking is well implanted in the way he conducts himself in 22-yard ribbon of challenges. His lovely drives through the offside, ferocious cuts and sweetly timed strokes through the mid wicket carry the stamp of aggression, authority and supreme confidence. He played many such marvellous innings with scintillating shots all around the wicket.
This predominantly back foot player relies heavily on his reflexes, instincts and timing. Sehwag does not really get behind the line of the pace men. Rather, he tends to make a movement towards the leg-stump, create more room to strike the ball on the offside, and chooses to play beside the line of the ball. This will invariably send the ball to the fence. Thus, by these shots, he lords over the arc between point and cover. He won’t brook a slightest error in width and direction. Though his footwork is limited against quickies, he can play his shots even in bouncy tracks.
In the last tour, he averaged 58 from four tests in Australia with a total of 464 runs. His 195 in Melbourne against Australia on a boxing day was a superb effort. His record making 309 runs in 375 balls in Multan was punishing to the Pakistani fast bowlers. Waiting on the back foot, he uses the pace of the ball to send the quickest of the deliveries to the ropes quite authoritatively. It is his ability to pick the line early which is helping him to manage the bowlers.
Anybody would have his technical shortcomings. While negotiating deliveries, Sehwag puts too much pressure on his right leg, and thus gets cramped when the ball is dug in short around the rib-cage area. There is a certain lack of footwork that has landed him in trouble when the slip cordon is in place. His limited feet movement often turns as a liability when probed in the corridor by the pacemen. Some times he tends to play away from the body around the off stump. This is disastrous for an opening batsman, especially when facing truly competent speed merchants.
With all his faults and foibles, this man, humble to the core is capable of bringing masses to the stadium. This master of action in the middle has the inherent explosiveness to inject an ecstatic enthusiasm when he wields the willow. “For Viru, there is action in every ball,” says Kumble. But Sehwag thinks he has just started off a great journey, and is humble enough to admit that. “I’ve a long way to go,” he says. He is the kind of cricketer, who can bring back crowds to the stadium. Even for test matches, he belts into attack at the slightest provocation. When he is there, the magic of passionate cricket will be dished out, irrespective of the format of the game. The economics of the game need players like Sehwag as more and more viewers hitched to the screens while he is batting.