The sight of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag padded up and walking in upfront must have been a mighty scary one for bowlers. The two names when strung together spelt a potentially explosive opening duet, until the recent experimental tweaking at the top of the order happened and MS Dhoni stole some of the thunder.Now, denied those heaps of runs that a partnership of their calibre always promised and dropped down the order as India’s batting order tests its elasticity, the two frontline batsmen are tipped to fire again like they once did. Maybe not together, since Chappell maintained that the experiments would continue. While Tendulkar has run into a bizzarre string of twos in his last three matches, Sehwag has got stuck in the 70’s thrice in the last 19 months, a period in which a century has eluded him. ‘‘We would like more runs at the top. Sachin will be in front of his home crowd, and if he gets going, he can win us a match on his own,’’Dravid said. Greg Chappell, who puts a lot of store on processes added, ‘‘I’m happy with the way he has coped with the workload. He has shown no side-effects to his injury, and moreover I’m impressed by his enthusiasm after all these years. The bigger the challenges thrown at him now, the better the learning experience.’’Sehwag, who came in two-drop for a reassuring unbeaten 77 at Bangalore, was tagged with a flattering role for the future. ‘‘We haven’t seen the best of Sehwag yet. He has another level to go higher, and once that happens India will be difficult to beat,’’ Chappell predicted.
