Bangalore, March 14: By common consensus, Virender Sehwag is the most destructive batsman in the world today.
He has redefined how batsmen of his ilk – that is openers – should approach the game in Test matches, he has struck the most fear into the hearts of opposition bowlers when he walks out in an ODI, and he has been the batsman who looked most likely to succeed at the shortest format of the game simply because his natural game did not need to change for him to do well in Twenty20s.
His ODI strike rate since the start of 2009 has been a staggering 136.78. Just to put things in perspective: in IPL 2009, amongst batsmen who had scored at least a 100 runs, only seven had a higher strike rate than 136.78 – and one of them was Sehwag himself!
With ODI stats like that, Sehwag needed to do nothing special to be equally destructive in Twenty20s, and yet his record in the format has been less than inspiring to say the least.
Since 2009, here is a record of Sehwag’s stats in Test matches, ODIs, Twenty20 Internationals and the IPL.
Sehwag in various forms of cricket since 2009:
Runs Average Strike Rate
Test Matches 1074 71.60 98.99
ODIs 967 42.04 136.78
T20 Internationals 141 28.20 195.83
IPL Matches 206 18.73 143.06
As can be seen Sehwag has been particularly ineffective in the IPL and in Twenty20 matches in general. His international stats are boosted by one innings of 64 off 36 balls, without which they would have looked pretty similar to his IPL stats.
His team won the match today, but it was without any major contribution from him. In fact, throughout the 2009 edition of the IPL, Delhi were carried for most of the way by AB de Villiers and Tillakaratne Dilshan, while the batsman the opposition most feared only made fleeting contributions.
Today’s match was a classic conundrum: Sehwag had come into the IPL having enjoyed a run-glut in all formats of the game in the past 12 months, he was at the top of his game, the opposition didn’t have any particularly threatening bowlers and the total to get was also not very challenging. And yet Sehwag failed.
What is it that has stopped Sehwag from shining in Twenty20s? It cannot be any cricketing issue or to do with batting, since he has clearly demonstrated that he has no problem in scoring fast, and neither is he unable to score big.
The problem perhaps lies in Sehwag’s mental approach to Twenty20 cricket. Sometimes it seems as if he approaches the match almost with a mindset that says, “Right this is Twenty20 cricket. Which means everything is accelerated. Which means I must accelerate my scoring. Which means even more shots.”
While this approach may work for others, it could actually be proving counter-productive to Sehwag. Other (more mortal) batsmen, need to adjust their games and their shot-making to keep pace with the frenzy of Twenty20 cricket. Their natural games are not suited to a 20-over slogfest. However, Sehwag does not need to adjust his game. Not one bit. He can bat the way he does in an ODI, and he will still be amongst the better Twenty20 batsmen. And of course, Sehwag being Sehwag, he will play the odd shot more than he would even in an ODI, which would ensure that he is not only amongst the better Twenty20 batsmen, but amongst the best.
This is not without precedent. Until the end of 2007, Sehwag averaged in the low 30s in ODI cricket, while his strike rate was always close to 100. At the time, everyone wondered why Sehwag was trying to do something extra in ODIs, when the way he batted in Test matches would have been good enough to make him a superb ODI batsman.
Whether or not Sehwag paid heed to the advice, or whether he himself figured out that if he could do it Test matches, there was no earthly reason why he couldn’t do it in Test matches, since 2008, his ODI stats have read an impressive average of 45.36 at a strike rate of 128.18.
The average – as expected – was somewhat lower than his Test match average, and the strike rate – again as expected – was higher than his Test match strike rate. But with an average of over 45 and a strike rate that meant he was scoring almost 8 runs an over, he has undoubtedly been amongst the very best and most fearsome ODI batsmen since 2008.
All he needs to do now, is to make the similar switch. He made it from Tests to ODIs soon enough, and now he needs to make it from ODIs to T20s. When he does that, India can rejoice for 45 weeks and the Delhi Daredevils can make the IPL even more of a party than it is for them currently in the remaining 7 weeks.
——-Agencies