By Tanwirul Hasan

“Look, I told you so.” an exuberant Virender Sehwag meant when he pointed his bat towards VVS Laxman who was sitting in the dressing room. It was in Multan. Virender Sehwag had notched up a triple century, a first for any Indian cricketer, marauding Pakistani attack in 2006. Clapping and giggling, Laxman saw the point in Sehwag’s celebration. After Laxman’s famous 281not out against Australia at the Eden Garden in 2001, Sehwag had told him that he would be first Indian to score a triple hundred.

Something that was told in jest had come true. Only Sehwag could have done it.

He did not chew gums while batting nor he looked fiery faced or flamboyant like Vivian Richards, yet Virender Sehwag was compared to Vivian Richard for his explosiveness as a batsman. It is not wise to compare players across times, but Sehwag was at par with him in shredding any bowling attack at will.

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Virender Sehwag was a revelation in the longer format of the game completely redefining opening batsmanship. He made runs at racing speed and regularly helped his team amass 300+ runs in Test cricket on any single day with 90 overs. With two triple hundreds, a record for any Indian and six double centuries, most by an Indian along with Tendulkar, plus 23 Test centuries all made at a staggering strike rate of over 82 is indeed an incredible feat.

The holder of such an enviable record, who toyed with best of bowlers with a plentiful of strokes, surprisingly did not know how to pull- a regular and vastly employed shot in cricket. He once approached Sachin Tendulkar to learn the pull shots but Tendulkar dissuaded him saying not to mess up his game as he had different strokes for the same delivery.

Sehwag did exactly- never messed up his game. No matter who was the adviser. He listened to everybody but remained only guided by his instinct in not curbing his stroke plays. He was a genuine stroke maker who invariably sets up the complexion of the match, but never was he a slapdash, unnecessarily lunging at balls to hit.

It was his temperament that stood him in good stead for so many years. Unruffled by the reputation of bowlers Sehwag played each ball the way he wanted. As long as he remained at the crease, he controlled the narrative of the game, all through giving so much reason to the crowd to cheer and so little happiness to the opposition.

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Sehwag’s hand-eye co-ordination was a constant subject of bewilderment. Some experts, in awe, felt he was a psychic who perhaps knew where the bowler was going to ball. Sehwag never swatted away deliveries with disdain but impeccably timed them to roll away towards the boundary. He had made stroke play look much easy. The sheer genius of Virender Sehwag was in hitting flurry of boundaries other than the sixes and his uncanny ability in dispatching balls through the gaps.

The breezy Sehwag never looked at a loss on the crease irrespective of the tightness of the situation.

In Bangalore Test 2001, Ashley Giles suffocated Tendulkar by bowling two feet outside from over the wicket managing 99 dots ball out of 112 bowled to Tendulkar. Sehwag, however, had an answer to this blockage. He went wide of the leg stump, down the wicket and clobbered straight over the head of Giles, hitting six fours before he departed cueing Tendulkar how to handle Giles.

Sehwag played his games. Records only chased him. He never got cautious in his 80s or 90s. He was not ready to waste deliveries for milestones. He blazed to a triple hundred with a six over midwicket to Shaqlain Mushtaq in Multan. Same he did in quest of double hundred. In Galle, he denied himself easy singles while he was batting on 199 with the 11th man in the team interest. Such examples of his selfless cricket are just too many.

It is not a mere coincidence that India’s best days in Test cricket coincides with the era of Sehwag. His sway on the format was just amazing. He played some unforgettable knocks enhancing India’s stature in the international arena of Test cricket. His gutsy 151* against Australia saved us the match, 319 against South Africa swung us back into the game, 309 against Pakistan and 201 against Sri Lanka won us the Test match. Also noteworthy is his 293 against Sri Lanka made in 2009 at Wankhede in winning cause that propelled us to the number one Test ranking.

He scaled the zenith of One-day Internationals when he surpassed Sachin’s 200 score by blasting 219 against West Indies in 2011 at Indore which was later broken by Rohit Sharma. Not to forget, he was also an off-spinner with discernible spin. In fact, his inclusion into Indian team was as an all rounder, but his rise and rise as an opening batsman made his bowling secondary and a little less biting.

Sehwag’s marvellous effort in Indore was also followed by a lean patch in his career. His fitness level declined. Hand-eye coordination was dysfunctional. After 2011, he appeared only in 10 odd games, in some, he batted wearing glass for improved eyesight but the old magical touch had deserted him. After remaining sidelined for more than two years he announced his retirement from international assignments.

Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman were great but Sehwag was a unique talent to have graced Indian cricket. The profoundness of his service will always be acknowledged with love and respect.

The approach of fearlessness that he brought to Indian batting will be braced up further with a new generation of gutsy players emerging, but Virender Sehwag will be remembered as the original ‘He-Man’ of Indian cricket for he showed the way by making bowlers fangless, captains of opposition bewildered and the spectators bewitched by his heroics.

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Tanwirul Hasan