I am back...though I never went anywhere & kept rating other good reviews ...esp the war of comments in srinivasans review of Ganguly was fun. But I am writing a review after some time now. And the reason I am writing this is the MAN himself about whom I am writing. Virendra Sehwag. If I was a poet I would have written a poem on him the day he made that swashbuckling century in Sri Lanka. But since I am NOT, I will use my rights in Mouthshut to shower my praises for ’’THE MAN’’.
Now when was the last time you watched a Cricketer so confident in his early days in international cricket playing for India? Anyway why talk about sad things when we r talking about something ’’poetic’’. No its not his batting Style or all his innings or his bowling that is poetic...its all these things combined with the aggression that makes me feel so ecstatic & hopeful about indian cricket everytime I watch Sehwag at the crease. After that ’’perfect’’ 66 ball century in Sri Lanka I started thinking if he has it in him for Test matches , coz that centruy didnt have 1 ’’slog’’ shot, it wwas all ground shots making its way to the ropes through the gaps(if only Dravid can find the gaps with those technically masterpiece shots I think he can make 50 ball centuries everytime he bats). But thats where the diff between between a Dravid & Sehwag comes. Text Shots help u get a hold on the game but when u r out there in the wild facing the likes of Akram, Mcgrath & Pollock U gotta use ur brains for every ball. For example the Pull shots over the third man during that brilliant 155 runs innings of Tendulkar was improvised then & there by the Maestro. No coach on earth will teach u such shots, hence no dravid can hit those shots. But Sehwag playing his debut text innings learnt that shot just from the non strikers end & used it twice that day. Now thats a cricketing brain.
Have u ever seen how cool & calm Sehwag looks no mater what dire straits India is in at that time. Of course he is tensed , but we cannot make out & neither can the opposition bowlers. And thats what makes a diff. Sehwag(& Sodhi another dude who deserves a shot at TEST matches) r 2 such players wehave for whom it doesnt matter when they come in to bat. They just off scoring from the very first ball they face. And thats when I wonder why Dravid takes so long o settle down. Laxman, Sehwag, Sodhi all relatively newcomers hardly waste a ball to’’settle down’’.
’’ Do u know in his debut innings Sehwag went upto Kallis & told him that if Kallis stands on his way again Sehwag will run over him. ’’
Now thats how I want our cricketers to be. TAKE NO SH1T -type attitude. Last 10 years have been really pathetic in this regard. We had a captain who had already fixed every match we played & was least bothered about the match. We had some 5 ’’dead personality’’ cricketers from Karnataka(except for Kumble....he is one aggressive exception) who played cricket as if it was some 9 to 5 job. But now things have changed. We have a TAKE NO SH1T captain leading a bunch of TAKE NO SH1T FROM NO ONE youngstars.
I dunno about u but I have a feeling Sehwag will be the captain of India one day. Ofcourse no one can predict anything in indian cricket. But whatever I have seen of him he certainly is THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING.