Sehwag's 88 ball 100 (at No 4) for MCC in the County opener

[ThePhenomenal1]

what will the middle order do for him? is it because he might face the old ball? You can't guarantee that. His reflexes have slowed and he's not the same.. we dont need him.

[Austin 3:!6]

Its time to bring back the man himself in Indian team :agree:

[ThePhenomenal1]

He would be perfect at number 5 for you guys in test matches and you can have this team in test matches. Rahane Dhawan Kohli Pujara Sehwag Rohit Dhoni (C & WK) Ashwin/Jadeja (All Rounder) Shami Bhuvi/Aaron/Some other Pace Bowler Mishra

rahane has been doing well as middle order test bat so id keep him there. dhawan and vijay stay for now, can assess in england. replacement can be a solid bat like dinesh karthik kohli at 4, pujara at 3. this isnt odis, pujara is our best test bat. Rohit??? the guy sucks, is a hack. keep him to t20 at 4 and ipl. dhoni?? he is done, as captain and player in tests New team: DK/Vijay/New opener Dhawan Pujara (Vice captain) Kohli (Captain) Rahane Rayudu (should be good for stability and can up the run rate) Saha Jadeja Yadav Shami Pandey Others: Aaron, Mishra, Ashwin, Pankaj, Bhuvi If you need 5 bowlers, can include an extra spinner for a batsman or an extra pacer. Now THATS a test team! :two_thumbs_up:

[Desi Cartman]

If Dhawan doesnt improve then Viru might have a chance to make a comeback , at least in the tests

[sandeep]

Look at the detailed stats for a better picture - Veeru raped a 3rd grade english leg-spinner for 40 of his runs. He did hit 7 boundaries off of the opening pace bowler who's played of 8 first class games in his career, but eventually was dismissed by the same guy. Don't get too carried away by one game. I am a huge Veeru fan - when he is in rhythm, there is no better sight for an India fan. But he's got a ways to go.

[Pagalpanti]

Even if he does put up a good show in the coming IPL and Ranji season, I doubt he can make it back in the team as a MOB, the only chance he has is as an opener and only there can he make an impact.

[NareshK]

Sehwag's Strike Rate in tests After playing 104 tests and scoring over 8500 runs, his strike rate was 82 with an average close to 50. This is just phenomenal. Many batsmen have strike rate in 70s in ODIs and this man had a strike rate over 80 over such a long career in test matches. This shows the impact he had on the game, the blazing starts he used to give us which put the opposition on back foot, the fear factor which he brought to the side and the fearless, aggressive approach which redefined opening in tests. Let's face it. The world may never see another destructive opener like Sehwag again. :hatsoff:

[IndianRenegade]

Someone who is comparable is Gilly Tests - 96 Runs - 5570 Ave - 47.60 SR - 81.95

[singhprakash72]

Someone who is comparable is Gilly Tests - 96 Runs - 5570 Ave - 47.60 SR - 81.95

Gilly was no doubt a phenomenal player but he did bat lower in a very strong line, which gave him added advantage. Sehwag on other hand was facing new ball and faced dilemma of attacking or giving initiative to bowlers (losing early wk)...where he chose former in most case. India without Sehwag in the decade of 2001 to 2011 would have been pretty unimaginable.

[velu]

sehwag is in a league of his own :hatsoff: but considering how sir jaddu is batting in test matches , he might end up having 80++ SR easily

[Zestian]

rahane has been doing well as middle order test bat so id keep him there. dhawan and vijay stay for now, can assess in england. replacement can be a solid bat like dinesh karthik kohli at 4, pujara at 3. this isnt odis, pujara is our best test bat. Rohit??? the guy sucks, is a hack. keep him to t20 at 4 and ipl. dhoni?? he is done, as captain and player in tests New team: DK/Vijay/New opener Dhawan Pujara (Vice captain) Kohli (Captain) Rahane Rayudu (should be good for stability and can up the run rate) Saha Jadeja Yadav Shami Pandey Others: Aaron, Mishra, Ashwin, Pankaj, Bhuvi If you need 5 bowlers, can include an extra spinner for a batsman or an extra pacer. Now THATS a test team! :two_thumbs_up:

DK :hehe: Vijay :hehe: Rayudu :hehe: Pankaj :hehe: :hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical::hysterical: Where is Sehwag & GG ??? And if u want to give some new players a chance then I would go with - V. Zol S. Samson B. Aparajith etc... So my team - Sehwag / Aparajith Dhawan GG Pujara (Vice captain) Kohli (Captain) Rahane Samson / Saha Jadeja / Mishra Yadav / Aaron Shami Pandey / Bhuvi

[Marut]

Someone who is comparable is Gilly Tests - 96 Runs - 5570 Ave - 47.60 SR - 81.95

Gilly was a lower order batsman - normally used to walk in at like 350-5!! Sehwag was an opener, there has never been an opener like him. Openers are known for strike rates of 40-50. Sehwag redesigned the role of a test opener.

[zen]

Viru :hatsoff: When Viru is playing at his best, he is the top batsman in the test team. With his dazzling and fearless batting, he gives Ind an advantage unlike any other batsmen (both current and during the last 10 years) .... So IF Viru returns to playing somewhere near his best, he should automatically be given a slot in the team, ideally in the middle order now :orderorder:

[Muloghonto]

This would be a confidence booster for Veeru. Its not over yet for him IMO. He is making the right noises and hopefully, with the right opportunity and effort, he will make a comeback. People who are saying his reflexes have slowed/his eyesight is gone are silly. Cricket is not about all eyesight or reflexes, even for reflex/eyesight based players, its ultimately about shot selection. Shot slection matters more for the likes of Sehwag because if he gets it right, he will have tonnes of runs, as he does not need to play that many shots to get runs ( as opposes to blockers). IMO, he can make a strong case for opening if he does a stint with a county team and scores some runs. Or the middle order spot because Rohit's spot is still open.

[Cricketics]

Rohit Sharma and Vijay's slot in trouble here. I have a feeling Dhawan will click in England. It's Rohit, who is looking good right now in t20, who tends to not do well overseas. If he does the same crap what he did in NZ and South Africa, he will easily make way for Veeru.

[vijay50]

Iam not sure if this is going to help Viru for England tour,as he made these run in flat tracks of UAE. Making these runs by playing county may help actually.

[Muloghonto]

Iam not sure if this is going to help Viru for England tour,as he made these run in flat tracks of UAE. Making these runs by playing county may help actually.

Yep but BCCI does not give permission to play county easily and Sehwag would have to really want to play county to get it. It would help his game and as far as i can see, he has some inklings to it too. IMO, the Sehwag story is a sad one. Sad because he was so brilliant and could've done so much more. People forget that when Sehwag was asked to open in Tests, it was an 'emergency situation' that was meant to be a stop-gap/if only for a series or two at most. Nobody expected him to score at 40+ average as an opener in England, that too, at nearly run-a-ball against the likes of Hoggard, Cork, Harmison, Jones, Flintoff, etc ( an attack that is just marginally worse-perhaps- than the Swann-Anderson-Broad attack in home conditions). He went on to utterly dominate the opening role- more so than Hayden in my opinion, till his first drop after RSA 2006. Till then, after his difficult debut as an opener in English conditions ( positively nightmarish scenario for a subcontinental middle-order career batsman to debut in English conditions opening the innings!), he proceeded to annihilate the bowling the world over, averaging 40+ in 11 of 16 series he played, at an average of well over 50, strike rate too astonishingly near 100. His only failures in this span was the infamous 'pitch-watering batting doom' series in NZ 2002, a series vs Bangladesh, a series at home vs SL and a series at home vs England. Then, after a poor run culminating in a series loss vs South Africa in South Africa, he was dropped. Throughout all this, we thought we have the best opener India has ever seen since Gavaskar's pomp and Sehwag saw this as 'an exceptional job done as a middle order improvisor at the top order because our middle order is the galacticos-style super heavy stalwarts'. He made a few noises as 'i am a middle order specialist, who only started opening at the ripe old age of almost 24, almost 10 years into playing cricket !' but accepted his fate to be 'opener or bust' when he returned with a bang against Australia in 2008. That followed another purple patch, where he proceeded to annihilate Australia in Australia & South Africa at home- becoming one of the very very few players to've scored doubles, let alone triples, against South Africa since their readmission to world cricket and chewed up SL in an epic performance in SL. He motored along, improvising all his career, till his fateful shoulder injury before the England tour. Sehwag never stopped seeing himself as a middle order bat first and foremost, which is not his 'downfall', it is his right: he was a middle order guy who was asked to open and told the only reason he has to open is because he is so good at it and there is no opening in the middle order. Then, when opening arose in the middle order with Ganguly's departure, he was told 'sorry, you are still good at it and we cannot continue with 4 30-something middle order because it will be too risky to not introduce new blood now'. Enter Virat Kohli. Well, all fine and dandy. But IMO we should've accomodated him in the middle order, especially in the last few series he played because it'd would have done his confidence a whole lot of good. Now, if Sehwag still has runs in him and makes the runs in the middle order, we should consider him for the position. Rohit is not the answer here, he never will be. He is going to be India's answer to Carl Hooper: a sublime player who on his own day will ooze class and make one think 'why does he not have an atg record' but those days will be far apart & his lows will be very low.

[zen]

His only failures in this span was the infamous 'pitch-watering batting doom' series in NZ 2002, a series vs Bangladesh, a series at home vs SL and a series at home vs England.

In NZ in 2002, iirc, he still hit 2 100s in the ODIs

[gakgupta]

he still has 2 to 3 years in him to serve indian cricket atleast in test matches.......i wish him luck and would thank him for entertainment provided which is of highest class. I must confess that i enjoyed watching him more than sachin himself......

[Sir john]

i too enjoyed his batting but now his carrier is over