Sehwag was the star but Dravid was a true captain

Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag belong to that exclusive breed of batsmen who will exasperate the best of bowlers after getting set. Both h...

Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag belong to that exclusive breed of batsmen who will exasperate the best of bowlers after getting set. Both have done well on Pakistani soil before, and that assurance was pretty evident in the way they manhandled the Pakistani bowlers on the fourth day of the Lahore Test.

I feel the wicket at the Iqbal stadium in Faisalabad, the venue of the Second Test, should be on the greener side. They might have been battered in this Test, but make no mistake, the Pakistani pace attack is superior to India’s. Whatever be the case, it should be an interesting series from now on, given that both teams are high on confidence.

The Indians were under a lot of pressure after conceding 675 runs, but their captain and vice-captain have brought them back with a bang. Sehwag’s murderous innings reminded me of his triple hundred at Multan two years ago. Batsmen like him tend to struggle on wickets which offer a little bit of help to the quicker bowlers, but there was nothing in the Lahore pitch to bother him.

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Sehwag was undoubtedly helped by the presence of Dravid at the other end. If you look at most of Dravid’s top knocks, you will notice that one of his teammates also got a big score in the same innings. The Indian captain possesses this knack of taking the pressure off his partner with his solid batting. He has done precisely that in the ongoing Test.

I will give full marks to Dravid for leading by example. Any other captain in his place might have been prompted to promote the wicketkeeper or another middle-order batsman to the opening slot, but he decided to take on the job himself. His teammates will respect him even more for what he did on the evening of the second day, at a stage when the Indians were looking at a mountain of 675 runs.

They might retain the same opening combination for the second Test, although I am still not in favour of Dravid opening.

The groundstaff at Faisalabad will do well not to produce a flat strip for the second Test. The Indian batsmen love such wickets, having spent the better part of their formative cricketing years batting on such tracks.

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This is not to take anything away from the manner in which Dravid and Sehwag batted, for let’s not forget that Pakistan beat England with the same bowling attack on similar wickets not very long ago. The Indian batsmen are streets ahead of their English counterparts.

It will be interesting to see how Sehwag bats on day five. He shouldn’t have any problems going on to a triple hundred. He has done it once already, and so he won’t be unduly nervous. In fact, there is even a possibility of Brian Lara’s world record being in danger if the Indian opener bats through the entire day.

Police personnel seen to control the situation during a massive protest over the statehood demand and the inclusion of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule, in Leh on Wednesday. (ANI Video Grab)

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