Was virendra Sehwag an all-time great batsmen?

[Harsh Thakor]

In his peak 'Viru' was one of the greatest batsmen the world of cricket has seen.He may have lacked adequate footwork or sound technique but his eyes and reflexes were razor sharp.Sehwag's hand eye co-ordination was like a programmed machine.In full flow he posessed the control of a driver steering racing car at full speed and intimidated the opposition like a military bomber raiding an airbase.He would bissect every part of the most impregnable of field settings like a butcher cutting meat with the finest finesse.One got the sensation of thunder and lightning setting in and he would start an innings like an airplane taking off a runway. What was amazing about Sehwag was that unlike Viv Richards or Brian Lara he hardly moved his feet.Even stalwarts like David Gower and Inazmam Ul Haq had sound footwork.I find it difficult to explain how he tore the bowling attacks to shreds with hardly any foot movement.His drive square on the offside is executed to a ball even 10 inches away with a touch of genius that no batsmen ever posessed. He may not have had Sachin Tendulkar's consistency and mastery or Azharuddin's elegance but as pure match-winner he surpassed every Indian batsman.He had a penchant for mammoth scores that no Indian batsmen ever had almost registering 3 triple hundreds.Above all he was prolific against South Africa and Australia ,the 2 best teams of the day.He mastered the Pakistani attack averaging 91.5,including making a record series aggregate of 544 in 2005 in India and scoring 309 at Multan.His 309 ranks amongst the finest test innings and amongst the best 2-3 ever in the 300 club as he won the game for India with strokeplay of unmatched brilliance.He made the then fastest triple century ever scored in terms of balls in record 336 run partnership with Tendulkar.He tore the bowling with the contempt of a swordsman piercing flesh.He also scored a mastery 155 at Chennai in most difficult condition sin 2004 against Australia and later a masterly 164 against South Africa at Kanpur.Later he amassed 319 versus South Africa ,scoring the quickest triple hundred ever.Sehwag had the highest strike rate any opening or test batsmen ever had. Sehwag's career often had fluctuation of fortunes and his average dropped to below 50 about 3 times.However he would always make a houdini style comeback and made his big scores when India needed them most.His centuries won India important win sin Australia at Perth in 2007-08 and in South Africa in the 2nd test in 2010-11.Against England at Calcutta Sehwag played one of the greatest innings in a 4th innings run chase when scoring 83 .India looked doomed when chasing a 370 run target but Sehwag's spectacular assault set the launching pad for India to achieve a famous victory.Whether driving ,cutting ,pulling or hooking Sehwag exhibited the authority of an emperor in control. No opening batsmen in the history of the game has dominated the opposition to the extent of Virendra Sehwag.Len Hutton,Jack Hobbs or Sunil Gavaskar were all time greats but never devoured bolwing like 'Viru.'To me at his peak he ranked with the best batsmen of all time.True ,the wickets may be placid in the modern era but even great batsmen like Ponting,Tendulkar or Lara did not pulverize bowling with the same authority as Veeru.True his marathon scores were compiled in the sub-continent but he also faced top class bowling. Sadly Veeru retired when his average fell below 50 and has never got the opportunity to stage a ressurection.When crossing the 8,000 run mark he averaged around 53 runs which was remarkable.At one stage he had the best average in a ist inings by any post war batsmen.However more than his best statistics it is the manner he got his runs and the impact it had on the team.I have no doubt that in any era Sehwag at his best.would have been a great match-winner.I would have backed him to turn games on bad wickets of any era.Bar Barry Richards no opening batsmen was ever as talented.Infact Viru with Hobbs ,Hutton,Gavaskar or Barry Richards would be the perfect opening partner.Viru lacked the aesthetics of Greg Chappell , the mastery of Sunil Gavaskar or the fluidity of Viv Richards but his batting posessed a unique charm of it's own.In his own right he was a pioneer to a new style of batting.What gives him a place amongst the all-time great batsman was his ability to pulverize the best of opposition not surpassed by Walter Hammond,Gary Sobers,Viv Richards or Brian Lara.He had a style of domination not posessed even by batting greats like Bradman,Hammond,Weekes ,Sobers or Viv Richards.Unlike Inzamam Ul Haq he was successful against the strongest teams of the day,South Africa and Australia.He scored 3 centuries on Australian soil itself including a 195 at Melbourne and a 151 at Adelaide.He averaged over 46 in Australia and over 50 against South Africa.At his best he overshadowed Sachin Tendulkar's contribution in India's big wins.Thus I would conclude by awarding the tag of 'great' to Virendra Sehwag rather than very good which I would award to 'V.V.S.Laxman,Mohammad Azharrudin,Salim Malik or even Zaheer Abbas,David Gower or Inzamam Ul Haq.He would finish a shade below Alan Border,Rahul Dravid ,Javed Miandad and Ricky Ponting.Amongst openers I place him only behind Hobbs,Barry Richards,Hutton and Gavaskar.Sehwag may just not posess that Muhammad Ali type temperament like Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara to stage a comeback.It was that very temperament that set apart those batting giants which sadly Viru lacked. VIRENDRA SEHWAG CAREER STATISTICS Span Mat Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 0 4s 6s overall 2001-2013 104 180 6 8586 319 49.34 10441 82.23 23 32 16 1233 91 Profile Career summary v Australia 2003-2013 23 45 1 1821 195 41.38 2406 75.68 3 10 3 244 12 view innings v Bangladesh 2004-2010 4 6 1 176 56 35.20 208 84.61 0 2 0 26 1 view innings v England 2001-2012 17 29 1 821 117 29.32 1089 75.39 2 4 7 116 9 view innings v New Zealand 2002-2012 12 21 1 883 173 44.15 1059 83.38 2 3 0 131 10 view innings v Pakistan 2004-2006 9 14 0 1276 309 91.14 1591 80.20 4 2 1 187 12 view innings v South Africa 2001-2011 15 26 0 1306 319 50.23 1621 80.56 5 2 2 191 17 view innings v Sri Lanka 2005-2010 11 18 1 1239 293 72.88 1241 99.83 5 3 2 184 15 view innings v West Indies 2002-2011 10 17 0 888 180 52.23 1005 88.35 2 5 1 122 14 view innings v Zimbabwe 2002-2005 3 4 1 176 74 58.66 221 79.63 0 1 0 32 1 won match 2002-2013 42 68 4 3498 309 54.65 3968 88.15 8 16 4 496 50 view innings lost match 2001-2012 28 56 0 1924 201 34.35 2498 77.02 5 7 7 294 15 view innings drawn match 2001-2012 34 56 2 3164 319 58.59 3975 79.59 10 9 5 443 26

[Sachin=GOD]

ATG.

[Mahaa Raavana]

Hell yeah ... B-> Paul Valtitty is another ATG :two_thumbs_up: In fact all mindless Indian FTB sloggers are ATG's

[jf1gp_1]

Here is what i know, when at his peak there was no bowler in the world who wanted to bowl at him. Both our neighbours have a few batsman who could on their day make the bowlers cry but unlike viru they needed perfect batting conditions. If you watch viru's innings you will notice a good number of times he got out cause he was just bored of hammering the bowlers. The only other batsman who was the same impact on bowlers was gilchrist.

[undisputed chap]

Indian great. Best indian opener after gavaskar.

[tweaker]

Sehwag was a very good Indian batsman

[kosingh]

I can't think of anyone who replace Sehwag in the 3 best Indian batsmen in the last 25 years (Tendulkar, Dravid and Sehwag).

[velu]

ATG .. not many batted like him.. sandman for pakistan

[ThePhenomenal1]

ATG but shouldnt play for india again. I say that with respect.

[moniker]

Whether driving ' date='cutting ,[b']pulling or hooking Sehwag exhibited the authority of an emperor in control.

He looked more like a pauper than emperor when the ball was directed at his ribs. Anyway, it's sad to refer to him in past tense really, if only he had better work ethic he could've transcended from an India ATG to a legendary player.

[Temujin Khaghan]

Typical Harsh Thakor hyperbole In his peak 'Viru' was one of the greatest batsmen the world of cricket has seen his eyes and reflexes were razor sharp. Sehwag's hand eye co-ordination was like a programmed machine. In full flow he posessed the control of a driver steering racing car at full speed and intimidated the opposition like a military bomber raiding an airbase. He would bissect every part of the most impregnable of field settings like a butcher cutting meat with the finest finesse. One got the sensation of thunder and lightning setting in and he would start an innings like an airplane taking off a runway. His drive square on the offside is executed to a ball even 10 inches away with a touch of genius that no batsmen ever posessed. but as pure match-winner he surpassed every Indian batsman. His 309 ranks amongst the finest test innings and amongst the best 2-3 ever in the 300 club .He tore the bowling with the contempt of a swordsman piercing flesh. However he would always make a houdini style comeback Whether driving ,cutting ,pulling or hooking Sehwag exhibited the authority of an emperor in control. 'To me at his peak he ranked with the best batsmen of all time but even great batsmen like Ponting,Tendulkar or Lara did not pulverize bowling with the same authority as Veeru.

[Temujin Khaghan]

Harsh the most readable part of your essay was the last paragraph when you controlled your purple prose to a certain extent and came to the point.

Sadly Veeru retired when his average fell below 50 and has never got the opportunity to stage a ressurection.When crossing the 8,000 run mark he averaged around 53 runs which was remarkable.At one stage he had the best average in a ist inings by any post war batsmen.However more than his best statistics it is the manner he got his runs and the impact it had on the team.I have no doubt that in any era Sehwag at his best.would have been a great match-winner.I would have backed him to turn games on bad wickets of any era.Bar Barry Richards no opening batsmen was ever as talented.Infact Viru with Hobbs ,Hutton,Gavaskar or Barry Richards would be the perfect opening partner.Viru lacked the aesthetics of Greg Chappell , the mastery of Sunil Gavaskar or the fluidity of Viv Richards but his batting posessed a unique charm of it's own.In his own right he was a pioneer to a new style of batting.What gives him a place amongst the all-time great batsman was his ability to pulverize the best of opposition not surpassed by Walter Hammond,Gary Sobers,Viv Richards or Brian Lara.He had a style of domination not posessed even by batting greats like Bradman,Hammond,Weekes ,Sobers or Viv Richards.Unlike Inzamam Ul Haq he was successful against the strongest teams of the day,South Africa and Australia.He scored 3 centuries on Australian soil itself including a 195 at Melbourne and a 151 at Adelaide.He averaged over 46 in Australia and over 50 against South Africa.At his best he overshadowed Sachin Tendulkar's contribution in India's big wins.Thus I would conclude by awarding the tag of 'great' to Virendra Sehwag rather than very good which I would award to 'V.V.S.Laxman,Mohammad Azharrudin,Salim Malik or even Zaheer Abbas,David Gower or Inzamam Ul Haq.He would finish a shade below Alan Border,Rahul Dravid ,Javed Miandad and Ricky Ponting.Amongst openers I place him only behind Hobbs,Barry Richards,Hutton and Gavaskar.Sehwag may just not posess that Muhammad Ali type temperament like Sachin Tendulkar or Brian Lara to stage a comeback.It was that very temperament that set apart those batting giants which sadly Viru lacked.

[BlueBee]

Surely an ATG. There was no bowler who loved bowling to him.

[FischerTal]

Surely an ATG. There was no bowler who loved bowling to him.

McGrath says hello

[BlueBee]

McGrath says hello

Sehwag thrashed him everytime in tests. :hatsoff:

[Chalks]

As far as tests goes, he only faced McGrath in one series - the series Australia won in India in 2004. And he was one of the few Indian batsmen to have any sort of success in that series (namely the brutal 155 in the first innings in Chennai, when the last day was washed out). Can you believe McGrath only played 11 tests against India? The one-off test on the dodgy pitch in Delhi in 1996, the 1999/2000 series in Australia (3 tests), and the 2001 (3 tests) and 2004 (4 tests) series in India.

[kubrickian]

All time great. Anybody who has an average of 50 over 100 tests and scored 8500+ runs and redefined batting as a test opener - his strike rate was 82 in tests which many ODI batsmen don't have - deserves to be considered an ATG. There will never be another Sehwag.

[cric_fan]

A resounding YES

[rising]

Yes he was one the most influential players for India specially in test he before him India used to score runs very slowly after he became opener India really looked world class and seemed like they can beat anyone anywhere more importantly he added the variety to Indian batting made bowlers fear him more importantly he could swing the game in one session

[KFC_Zinger]

I think he was GOD for 3/4 years, may be its 2003 to 2007 but after that he was largely in very good category..... however I don't think any Indian batsman has terrorised our joshilay neighbours more than viru, some of them might still be *****ing in their pants....