Opinion Greg still cant figure Viru out
Usually,if Virender got a start,his team-mates would then think that they should score 300 plus.
Of all the points raised by Greg Chappell on Virender Sehwag (a favourite subject matter of his) and his form in a newspaper column recently,the following was the most bizarre. By a mile. When Viru got runs in 50-over cricket,India often lost. He seemed more concerned with his strike rate than the bigger picture, says Chappell of a man he earlier terms as insouciant.
Usually,if Virender got a start,his team-mates would then think that they should score 300 plus. Once he got out,others tried to maintain the frenetic run-rate and the game would slip away. Seven years on,nothing much has changed, Chappell adds to drive home the point. Really now?
The most rudimentary stat search tells you that Sehwag has scored 30 runs (a high threshold figure for the word start) or more on 106 occasions in 50-over cricket. India won 71 of them. Thats 67 per cent of the times Sehwag has got a start or two out of every three occasions India have ended victorious.
How then did India often lose Mr Chappell? Was it because he wasnt interested in developing leg side shots at your advice,as the next big point in the column suggests? Not dedicated Sehwag,somehow miraculously then,wasnt exposed while his predominantly off-side strokes got him two Test triple tons and a one-day 200 the size of a decent team-total.
Yes,it is true that Sehwag is woefully out of form,dropped on that basis for his second consecutive World T20 match on Friday. But blaming it on the fact that Viru did not know how to dedicate himself to disciplined training, as says Chappell in Point Three,is looking past his love to keep things simple.
Sehwag has always maintained that things like technique,hard work and practice come automatically if you know your ability. Its your ability that gets you success. And Viru has plenty of that.
Even if a few detractors cannot quantify it into statistics.
The writer is a senior correspondent,based in New Delhi
aditya.iyer@expressindia.com
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