The Sehwag threads [Merged]

[Dhondy]

Has headed the batting and bowling averages. His exclusion in the first two Tests will go down as the greatest piece of idiocy by the team management, a move that potentially cost them the series. Novpj, his greatest critic, should have the grace to come out and own up, as should Pred, who said that this man should not be allowed anywhere near the Indian cricket side. Shwetabh had lost faith, but to be fair backed him before the Oz series. Bumps and Hari were steadfast in their faith in him, and deserve to be congratulated. Well done guys!

[Guest HariSampath]

Has headed the batting and bowling averages. His exclusion in the first two Tests will go down as the greatest piece of idiocy by the team management, a move that potentially cost them the series. Novpj, his greatest critic, should have the grace to come out and own up, as should Pred, who said that this man should not be allowed anywhere near the Indian cricket side. Shwetabh had lost faith, but to be fair backed him before the Oz series. Bumps and Hari were steadfast in their faith in him, and deserve to be congratulated. Well done guys!

:two_thumbs_up: AND I made a case with Anil too ( meaning I emailed that article I wrote to him which he had read, but Anil obviously needs no encouragement as he was a HUGE Sehwag man...just that he made the mistake of not playing him in ALL 4 tests )

[Guest HariSampath]

Just imagine, if Sehwag had come in 1st test itself, he would have been on a roll by 2nd test and who knows what he might have scored...probably another 200 runs, and we might have won a test series in Aus :((

[Dhondy]

Just imagine' date=' if Sehwag had come in 1st test itself, he would have been on a roll by 2nd test and who knows what he might have scored...probably another 200 runs, and we might have won a test series in Aus :(([/quote'] Certainly, Sydney would have favoured his batting style, and with his penchant for scoring quickly, India could have put real pressure on Australia if Sehwag had scored big.

[Dhondy]

Hari, you have been watching cricket for many years, as have I. Do you know what my greatest regret is? It's the tendency of us good fans and our selectors to forget the better times in a matter of a few Tests when class players lose form, and start baying for their blood. This man revolutionized Indian cricket, top scored in 4 successive series against serious opposition, let loose a series of double and triple tons, the last 9 out of 10 tons have been 150+, he still averages 50 with the bat, the world fears him, and yet, we the fans, and our selectors rubbished him when he failed over a matter of four Tests. I know we fans are fickle, fair weather creatures, but what about our selectors? How can they ever live down this blunder? Surely, somebody needs to ask some tough questions of them.

[Guest HariSampath]

Doc I still cant understand HOW Sehwag was tagged as a failure when even in his worst year and last few "failure" tests he had averaged 39.50 !! I am sure the Gambhirs, Chopras et al will gladly take that. Sehwag averages 50.67 in tests now !! His average against Aus is 53.90 and IN Aus it is 59.90 !! and they said this man should have been replaced by the Gambhirs and Chopras of this world who had got big 200s against teams like Tripura, Arunachal, Sikkim etc !!! Even our jaffa who had got 200 against Pak in tests plus the likes of test greats like Ganguly and Dravid failed in this series and here we have , a man who was not even found good enough to play against pakistan at home, and not even in the 24 probables, standing up , helping us in a BIG way to win at Perth, playing superbly undere huge pressure to draw a game and salvaging us from a 1-3 and also lots of pride salvaged last 2 tests. Unbelieavable !! He had topped the batting and bowling averages too for this test series, ...what to say!! FANTASTIC comeback !!!

[manoj_admlab]

@ Hari :two_thumbs_up:

[IndianRenegade]

Poker-faced Sehwag comes up aces When the Indian selectors decided, around two months ago, to leave Virender Sehwag out of the probables for this tour, former Australian captain Ian Chappell urged them to think again. "As the gambler says, 'You've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em'," he had written. "Now was not the right time to give up on Sehwag." Few would have imagined Sehwag actually making the tour but fewer still could have imagined him batting close to six hours in the final innings of the fourth Test to earn his side a draw. Sehwag doesn't usually do defence, and his average in the final innings of a Test, before his 151 in Adelaide, was 29. Only on three earlier occasions had he managed a half-century in his 54-match career. It wasn't one of his most exhilarating innings but neither was it as dogged as the scorecard suggests. By shelving his wild swish outside off stump, he produced a most uncharacteristic hundred; a driver shifting gears expertly. Until the first drinks break, a period when Rahul Dravid pottered around for 21 dot balls, Sehwag did all the scoring. After lunch he turned in a performance straight out of the Dravid manual: bringing out his front-foot defence, with his body balanced and bat ram-rod straight, and went through a whole session without a boundary. The bungee-jumper was more interested in a game of chess. Straight-batted drives continued to singe the grass and occasionally he even went aerial. He caned Brad Hogg's third ball over midwicket, despite a fielder patrolling the fence, and pounded the next one, a fuller ball, through the covers for four. Andrew Symonds and Michael Clarke were offered a bit more respect but there was no doubt he was well on top of the bowling. Sensibly he didn't take too many chances against the faster bowlers, especially after Brett Lee knocked him on the face earlier in the day, but had little trouble in blunting Australia's victory hopes. "Sehwag batted brilliantly," said Anil Kumble later. "He was really positive and played a fantastic knock." Ricky Ponting admitted that Sehwag's innings had effectively shut their hopes of victory. "With his innings, he started taking the game away from us. I thought we could have had a good time after lunch but the way Virender was batting didn't allow us to." Not only did Sehwag spend time in the middle, he ensured the lead was constantly enhanced. He batted out time but didn't ignore the importance of batting for runs. Just when he appeared to border on the reckless, he reined himself in. As soon as he was looking like a stone-waller, he let loose. Picked on a hunch, thanks mainly to Kumble's backing, he vindicated his selection with a fine game here. Creating scoring opportunities against good deliveries, and using the simplicity of his technique to keep out the good ones, he wasn't sorted out, despite entering the series on the back of a woeful few months. He made just 29 and 43 in Perth but his effect went beyond mere numbers. India discovered a good young fast bowler in Ishant Sharna on this tour but also rediscovered an inimitable batsman. Sehwag has always had the appetite for the big hundred. On the last eight occasions he's reached three figures, he's gone on to make more than 150. Starting with the 195 in Melbourne, during the 2003-04 season, he's rattled 309, 155, 164, 173, 201, 254, 180 and 151. Since then, he's pulverised attacks on day one (Multan and St Lucia), seized the initiative on day two (Chennai and Mohali), and fought back under mountainous totals on day three (Kanpur, Bangalore and Lahore). Now he's led the rearguard on day five. No-one doubted his ability as a matchwinner; now he's shown his worth as a match-saver. We know he could fold 'em but he did well here to realise when to hold 'em. Siddhartha Vaidyanathan is an assistant editor at Cricinfo © Cricinfo

[Anakin]

I have always supported the inclusion of Veeru as well and had some arguments with MM on that topic too. You just can't play numbers game with such talents, hope some people learn their lessons.

[Gambit]

I started a similar thread when Sehwag wasn't selected for England. I still remember a quote from theguyinallblue after another Sehwag failure in a Ranji game where he said something like: Sehwag sher hai. Woh ghaas(domestic cricket) nahin khaata. Usse asli maas(intl cricket) h bhaata hai

[Dhondy]

When the scoreboard reads 128 for the team, and one batsman has already reached his ton, that batsman must be Sehwag. No other bat in Test cricket is capable of this feat. Under pressure too! Fittingly, it was the fastest hundred of the series.

[The Outsider]

Shwetabh had lost faith, but to be fair backed him before the Oz series.

Before Pak series actually, always felt he just needed some time out not an exile.

[The Outsider]

The man saved our ass today. He is worth his weight in gold!

That's a lot of gold. :D

[Dhondy]

There's no shame in getting it wrong, but I really can't get over the fact that so many of us and in the Indian media, including idiots like Sandeep Patil called for his head when he entered his lean spell. Vengsarkar was obdurate in keeping him out of the England and Pakistan series, resulting in the unedifying spectacle of Dinesh Kartick being preferred to him despite failure after failure, and then the ultimate insult....Gautam Gambhir turning out in Indian colours ahead of him in a Test match versus Pakistan. Even if I lived to be a 100, I'd never forgive nor forget the jokers who dumped this man from the team.

[The Outsider]

Gautam Gambhir turning out in Indian colours ahead of him in a Test match versus Pakistan.

That was pathetic. This guy is touring Australia for the ODIs and will be completely exposed.

[Online]

When the scoreboard reads 128 for the team, and one batsman has already reached his ton, that batsman must be Sehwag. No other bat in Test cricket is capable of this feat. Under pressure too! Fittingly, it was the fastest hundred of the series.

How abt Sanath?

[Dhondy]

How abt Sanath?

Yes, what about him? How many blitzkreig tons has he scored in Australia?

[Mr. Wicket]

That was pathetic. This guy is touring Australia for the ODIs and will be completely exposed.

Wonderful. Let that pathetic flat track/crap attack/domestic bully Gambhir play in every single game. Against Australia, he won't average over 15, and probably not much higher against Sri Lanka. Pick him for a long, extended series and let him fail miserably, and hopefully the turd will be flushed away. Right now he's been surviving too long because of failures against better opposition, followed by a couple of games either on flat tracks or against the might of Ireland, Scotland or Bangladesh whom he's beaten up to lift his average to a MIGHTY 30 POINT SOMETHING! A stretch of matches against two of the better ODI teams in the world will hopefully see that come down to a 25 or so that's more reflective of his abilities, and then we may never have to put up with the pain of seeing him in India colours again.

[Online]

Yes' date=' what about him? How many blitzkreig tons has he scored in Australia?[/quote'] your question was different ... did not mention australia

When the scoreboard reads 128 for the team, and one batsman has already reached his ton, that batsman must be Sehwag. No other bat in Test cricket is capable of this feat. Under pressure too! Fittingly, it was the fastest hundred of the series.

nevertheless - here is a ton sanath scored in aus in the second innings, at around the same strike rate http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/statsguru/engine/match/63708.html not trying to draw comparisons between the two guys here - but hope you get the point

[Dhondy]

Same SR? That SR is below 60. Even at his slowest, Viru scores faster than that.