Saturday, March 16, 2013

Virender Sehwag. - The destructive genius.

Every Indian cricket lover (of course, every Indian is a cricket lover); especially of the test cricket is now celebrating the latest world record of ton on a debut by Shikhar Dhawan. And also the support from the other end by Murali Vijay is too remarkable to ignore. Well & good.

People with ties to their necks, microphones to their shirts, sitting on single legged stools in the box seem relieved from the anxiousness of discovering the proper replacements for the Fab 4: Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Sachin Tendulkar. The first 3 guys finished first & are enjoying the passive involvement in the game by turning into critics and commentators. The last one still feels that he has a little more cricket left in him. He's known for his sleeplessness until he achieves what he desires. So can we wish Sachin a sound sleep only on the day he hangs up his boots.

Alright. We forgot him who bridged the generation gap between today's heroes like Kohli, Dhawan, Pujara, Raina etc & yesteryear's legends like the Fab 4. A minute into the thought & the name gloriously flashes on your mind. - Virender Sehwag.

I am very happy after knowimng that Shikhar Dhawan has come like he had never come although his entry marked on the ousting of Virender Sehwag.

I didn't start this one to analyze the game of Sehwag as there are at least half a billion on the globe who do that succinctly better than me.

This is a quick tribute I am paying to the star who drew crowds to almost-forgotten test cricket in India; post Gavaskar, K. Dev's era. And now, he is on the verge of being forgotten (may be ignored?)

Innings of Dravid, Laxman, Sachin belonged to educated sections of the country. Here, I am not undermining the crowd pulling charisma of either S. Ganguly or S. Tendulkar neither am I underrating the class of Dravid or Laxman.

When there is a group pf butchers, butlers, pot makers & post masters of a village, if they gather at the richest guy of the village's house to watch a test match, the credit totally belonged to Sehwag.

He was questioned about his mental stability to build up a sustainable test career. He wiped out that question with a classic 195 against Australia. His technique was questioned. He hit back the suspicion in style with a demolishing 309 against Pakistan. He who once was a laughing stock in the commentary box later made the same people in the box yell like 'you can't set fields for a shot like that.' He whose patience levels were suspected to survive in test cricket emerged out to be the only Indian batsman who scored a triple century - TWICE.

Sehwag is a genius in his own league & conveniently humane enough to overlook the fact.


I was told that once there was Gundappa Vishwanath. Now there is (was?) Virender Sehwag.


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