Was Sehwag a potential candidate for ATG?

[rtmohanlal]

One of the  few players in the history of the game who polarizes opinions so largely . Was going thru a topic in a padosi site related with him, which prompted to create this thread. In reality he was a middle order batsman in domestic.Naturally he debuted as a middle order batsman. In his  very first inns itself ,   he scored his very first 100+ in SENA in SAF.  And he avg:ed 49.66 @ 62.6 in first SAF series. Then he was made to open.In his first series in ENG( another nemesis country of his)  he scored a 100+ and avg:ed  39.5 @ 66.57 . So he started with a bang in 2 of his 3 nemesis SENA countries.

In AUS & WI , he has always been absolutely great when all things are taken into account. In NZL  in 2002 series, when all others were struggling to  put bat on ball in  one of the most difficult batting conditions ever , he produced 2 runs a ball 100s in one day series.

 

And in the 2008 NZL series when even the likes of Yuvraj avg:ed 30+, he avg:ed 28 only.

 

In  ENG in 2011 he was brought as some sort of messiah to rescue a badly struggling Indian team and failed miserably. He was recovering from an injury that time, if I am not wrong.

 

And no need to describe his exploits in general. Almost 50+ avg: at 82+ str: rate is out of the ordinary for an opener.When in full flow he was the most intimidating batsman who built massive inns at alarming str: rates.He was absolutely phenomenal in ASIA.

 

Yet , his <30 avg: in  all of SENA except AUS  means he is regarded at the most as a 'border line ATG' only.

 

Batsmen in general tend to struggle  in alien conditions at the start of their careers and then catch up  once they gain experience .Sehwag was just the opposite. He started splendidly in ENG & SAF and faded off later.  Another weakness was his attitude problem. He had utter contempt for spinners which sometimes caused his downfall in SENA.

 

My doubts are these .

Had Sehwag played in his self preferred middle order? Had he been properly managed by the team management like not importing  in the midst of a very tough tour while he was recovering from injury??  Had he been properly advised w.r.t the temperamental aspects in building an inns??

Wouldn't he turn out  to be an undisputed ATG. I strongly feel so .  Discuss...

Edited October 20, 2018 by rtmohanlal

[rkt.india]

any opener averaging around 50 is an ATG more so with SR he had.

[rtmohanlal]

22 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

any opener averaging around 50 is an ATG more so with SR he had.

Another note worthy point which I just filtered out from his stats is that  in SENA + WI(a good team that time) he aggregated 2228 runs in  2974 balls from  63 inns with 0 not outs. That means an avg: of 35.37 & str: rate  74.92 .This stats is worth  40+ avg: @50 str: rate

of a middle order batsman. Adding his other over all exploits , I too am being forced to believe that he is a lower tier  ATG  though I only treated him a border line ATG earlier. 

[SUMO]

ATG in tests no doubt. Wasnt bad outside subcontinent during 1st half of his career. Should have better career in ODIs though.

[jf1gp_1]

At his peak, the reaction once he fell of opposition bowler, team even the commie would tell you how scared everyone used to be of sehwag. 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2018 by jf1gp_1

[velu]

best of sehwag for me is 2011wc vs padosis ..

umar gul was their best bowler and sehwag completely took him out of the game in 2 overs

[goose]

as fans we can sometimes taper our love for a player to fit widely accepted parameters such as stats. never mind you watched every innings he played, never mind the emotions he stirred. the hope he gave. for me Sehwag is and will always be an ATG and more. 

[rtmohanlal]

44 minutes ago, SUMO said:

ATG in tests no doubt. Wasnt bad outside subcontinent during 1st half of his career. Should have better career in ODIs though.

but in ODIs Sehawag's str: rate is  104.33, though avg: is only 35.05 . Means he scored 35.05 in mere 33.6 balls. On the other hand a batsman avg:ing  40  @87  from those times is considered a great. Means 40 runs in   46 balls. In a format where str: rate  holds far more  importance , this too is not far from ATG , it seems. But yes, his performance was convincingly off  from  being balanced in all countries. From that point, he was  at the most a 'very good' one day batsman only(one or even 2 level below ATG status).

Edited October 20, 2018 by rtmohanlal

[goose]

SENA analysis excludes his 200 in Sri Lanka when Tendulkar, Laxman, and Dravid made Mendis look unplayable. 

[Number]

He is an ATG for me. Give me another opener averaging close to 50 with that s/r.

[vvvslaxman]

 

He is becoming legend on twitter lol

[zen]

Sehwag is an ATG 

[Rasgulla]

Ofcourse 

 

Will defo make All time XI for ODIS

 

Sehwag

Rohit

 

Sehwag

Dhawan

 

Sehwag

Ganguly

 

 

[Adi BB]

He's a test ATG no doubt ,averaging 50 striking at 82 is just madness ! I'd pay to watch viru !

In odis however he wasnt reliable at all , and had a poor conversion rate but defo an X factor considering he could bowl some valuable overs