When Virender Sehwag was out playing an across-the-line aggressive shot for the second time in the Test on Saturday,a debate was triggered. Often it is said that players like Sehwag shouldnt tamper with their style of play regardless of the match situation. Earlier,another natural strokemaker Yuvraj Singh,too,had gone for an expansive drive to a ball pitched outside the off stump and was caught in the slips. Since the need of the hour for India was to curb the risky shots and play straight,questions were asked if playing the natural game was always an irrevocable adage with no exceptions. On Sunday,the query was put to Rahul Dravid and it induced a firm No. You have got to play according to the situation. That is what great players have done over the years. They read the situation,they play according to the wicket and the conditions,and thats how people I have admired and I have watched over the years played, he said. There cannot be only one way of playing the game. The great and the good players are those who can adapt and play according to the situation. In this Test series,Dravid has practised what he preaches. Take,for example,his two knocks of 60s a 138-ball 66 in first innings of the first Test at Hamilton and a 220-ball 62 in a pressure situation here on Sunday. Comparing his two innings,Dravid said,The knock of 66 was different since it was the second innings and you were tying to save a Test. You need to really grind know what your role in the side is. In the first innings you are trying to set up a game and it was the first Test, he said. Interestingly,before the Test when Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni was asked about the adjustment the stroke players will have to make after the one-dayers,he had different take on the subject. Some batsmen will continue to play the kind of cricket they have played. It can be a Virender Sehwag or a Jesse Ryder because thats their area of strength,you dont want them to curb that, he said. But he too added a rider to it. Sometimes they may have to change it but more often than not theyll play that way. Probably,a Napier kind of situation was what Dhoni was talking about.
