da jogodeouro： This is a different kind of cricket
Krishna Kumar12-Jun-2013
Virender Sehwag: unrestrained, unrehearsed, inscrutable© AFP
This is a different kind of cricket. Not the soft artistry of VVS Laxman, notthe classical, streamlined beauty of Rahul Dravid, not the scientific art ofSachin Tendulkar’s genius. This isn’t the moody strokeplay of Sourav Ganguly, nor themuscular presence and timing of Yuvraj Singh. This is somehow a bit moreuninhibited. At times, it’s easier to define things by describing whatthey aren’t. When you think of Sehwag, you first think of unrestrained,unrehearsed, inscrutable. Everything seems instantly conceived.Everything is very definitely original.It is easy to get carried away by the seemingly spontaneous flow of Sehwag’sshotmaking. When hours of careful study of bowlers’ techniques align withan unerring ability to pick line and, more importantly, length early, you feela batsman is playing purely by instinct. It is an instinct that has been finelyhoned. Sehwag possesses a fine cricketing mind and he plays the ball verylate. Nearly always, he’s on tiptoe and, now and then, his feet are off theground. This is what allows him the freedom to improvise.Sehwag’s confidence in his abilities borders on cricketing swagger. It is adifferent brand of arrogance. It isn’t the restrained confidence of aTendulkar. It’s a bit like Richards. With bowlers bowling to Tendulkar,especially these days, it is an acknowledgement of mastery. With Sehwag,it’s almost a fear of flogging. There’s a crucial difference with Richardshowever. Viv was the master of machismo, of the exaggerated strut and theflourish of the follow-through. It was muscular masculinity expressedthrough sport. Where Richards’s arrogance was significant in itsexaggeration, Sehwag’s is apparent in its minimising.Sehwag doesn’t hold his pose after a flashing cover-drive, the bat is brought back down from the follow-through very quickly, as if it wasn’t such a big deal after all. Hemight take a couple of short steps about the crease, look down the handle ofhis bat held away from him at an angle, and then he’s ready again. His isalmost an oriental spunk. Viv’s cricket was also a statement of a people,Sehwag’s is simply the sporting expression of a free-spirited individual.To bowlers, both might appear the same.There are resemblances to Javed Miandad in his very streetsmart approach tocricket. But the jauntiness is at variance with Miandad’s. He may assume hisstance well outside leg as he did to Stuart MacGill in Sydney. He might splay hisleft leg and hit the first ball of a new spell for six over the bowler’shead. But, the jauntiness isn’t in your face like Miandad’s. He veryrarely provokes, he generally only reacts.From a batsman who modelled some of his early batsmanship on Tendulkar,Sehwag has blossomed quickly into a batsman with his very own range ofstrokes. Not many now will mistake him for Sachin. That flick off his toesthat resembles Sachin’s in body balance has a table-tennis-like flourish,you can feel the face of the bat turning on the ball. Sachin seems to use thepace of the ball, Sehwag looks to give it a real whip. His vast array ofoff-side shots are close to all his own. He might have initially borrowedthe upper cut from Sachin, but he plays it far more regularly than Sachinthese days. There is incredibly, at least one six over point every biginnings. There is a difference even in the way he ducks under the shortball. He doesn’t necessarily follow the ball into the keeper’s gloves, it’sas if he’s saying, the ball’s gone over my head, why bother looking.He has succeeded at opening because he has stuck to his game. Shrewdly, inTests, he gives the first hour to the bowler and then opens out. Thedefence has tightened and he leaves a lot more outside off. His camaraderiewith Akash Chopra reminds you sometimes of the relationship between Desmond Haynes and Gordon Greenidge. His acute cricketing alertness makes you feel he’s rarely rushed when taking those quick singles. Mostly, you see him ease to the striker’s end at a short,light canter.The same alertness is why he’s a very good fielder and anexcellent catcher. Ajit Agarkar and Dravid were the architects of that famousAdelaide win, but it was the brilliant, full-length diving tumble fromSehwag to catch Simon Katich at the end of an exhausting first day thatprovided the initial spark. Earlier in the year, he’d held a few very sharpones at slip to help Ashish Nehra run through England in the World Cup game atDurban. His first movement to the ball is so well-timed that the rest seemseasy in comparison. To top it all off, he’s a half-decent offie as well.Often it is flippantly claimed that there’s a method to his madness. I begto differ. This is no madness. We see so much of what’s conventional thatwe can’t seem to recognise celebration. It isn’t that he doesn’t respectcricket’s time-tested techniques, it’s just that he’s very alert to itsintricacies. He can conceive attack when so many would defend. It’s not asif he doesn’t understand the importance of footwork and getting behind theline. He appreciates these for what they are. They are means to an end.That of hitting a cricket ball consistently with the middle of the bat. Hedoes this by a wonderful combination of bat-speed and fine balance. This isa celebration of rare talent. Not someone having a waft in the wind.