A tale of two openers

[The Outsider]

I have always found a bit of a career similarity between Sehwag and Graeme Smith. Both are among the more successful openers of the decade and play an attacking brand of cricket at the top of the order, though needless to say Sehwag is more destructive on his day. Both were averaging well into the 50s till a couple of years back or so and bad form struck both of them around the same time, a bit later for Sehwag than Smith. While Sehwag was dropped Smith, partially on virtue of being the captain and partially because South African selectors are a more patient lot, has continued to open. Over his last 19 tests he averages a mediocre 30.61 with only one century against a depleted Pakistani attack on a featherbed. Sehwag was dropped ruthlessly after one series in which he did not make any major contribution, perhaps correctly in order to make a statement that his lose shot selection needs tidying up. Smith is unlikely to have his position in the side questioned for at least a couple of years if South Africa keep on doing reasonably well and he keeps his average around 35+. For Sehwag, the coming tour of Australia and even the first test is an important career milestone. Failures in Australia can put him on a long exile. Let's see if these two openers can bring back their successful years or whether they are destined to fade away. The numbers for Smith :

[FONT=MONOSPACE,COURIER NEW,COURIER]                     Mat    I  NO  Runs HS1  HS2  HS3     Ave 100  50   0

unfiltered            58  103   5  4543 277  259  200   46.35  12  18   7
filtered              19   36   0  1102 133   94   68   30.61   1   6   3

The numbers for Sehwag :

[FONT=MONOSPACE,COURIER NEW,COURIER]                     Mat    I  NO  Runs HS1  HS2  HS3     Ave 100  50   0

unfiltered            52   87   3  4155 309  254  201   49.46  12  12   9
filtered              19   33   2  1315 254  201  180   42.41   3   3   5

[MundaPakistani]

I have always found a bit of a career similarity between Sehwag and Graeme Smith. Both are among the more successful openers of the decade and play an attacking brand of cricket at the top of the order, though needless to say Sehwag is more destructive on his day. Both were averaging well into the 50s till a couple of years back or so and bad form struck both of them around the same time, a bit later for Sehwag than Smith. While Sehwag was dropped Smith, partially on virtue of being the captain and partially because South African selectors are a more patient lot, has continued to open. Over his last 19 tests he averages a mediocre 30.61 with only one century against a depleted Pakistani attack on a featherbed. Sehwag was dropped ruthlessly after one series in which he did not make any major contribution, perhaps correctly in order to make a statement that his lose shot selection needs tidying up. Smith is unlikely to have his position in the side questioned for at least a couple of years if South Africa keep on doing reasonably well and he keeps his average around 35+. For Sehwag, the coming tour of Australia and even the first test is an important career milestone. Failures in Australia can put him on a long exile. Let's see if these two openers can bring back their successful years or whether they are destined to fade away.

Good write up Shwetabh. You make a valid point about the selectors being impatient how ever the #s that used can be easily be manipulated either way Here are Sehwag's #s after scoring that double ton on possibly the flattest pitch in the history of test cricket.

[FONT=MONOSPACE,COURIER NEW,COURIER]12   581 180   27.66   1   2[/FONT]

Smith's #s in the last 12 games

[FONT=MONOSPACE,COURIER NEW,COURIER] 12   808 133   36.72   1   6[/FONT]

[The Outsider]

Numbers were just provided as indicators and I am not denying that Sehwag was out of form. The post was to draw a contrast as to how being captain and having more patient selectors can at times lead to totally different career paths. Being at the right place at the right time kind of a thing.

[Mr. Wicket]

The difference is that India also has plenty of batting talent in reserves. Yuvraj, as much as I rail on him, is an outstanding talent even if he's only shown once recently that he can make big scores in tests. Badrinath is on the fringe making runs, same with Pujara (who I think is our long term opener). And then we have the other young guns, Tiwari, Raina, Rohit Sharma, etc. In South Africa, they have Boeta frigging Dippenaar. So Smith gets a far greater license to fail before Mr. Thirty Average puts any pressure on his spot.

[The Outsider]

Salil, that's true for the middle order but not for openers. India are still deprived of good openers. We ended up using a makeshift choice in Karthik after dropping Sehwag and then Gambhir and now we are going back to Sehwag with Chopra the only other reasonable alternative around. Pujara might turn out to be one for the future but needs to play a couple of more FC seasons, IMO.

[Mr. Wicket]

Openers? Isn't that just the position where our most expendable middle order batsman or a keeper can also bat? :D

[Ram]

Strange, till i saw these numbers, I was never really under the impression that Smith was out of form. He record has drooped a bit in the last many tests, something that had missed my attention till now. A thing that comes to my mind now is, are we being realistic in our expectations with Sehwag ? Is he really a 50-average-opener in the first place ? A cursory glances at the record tells me Sehwag is ahead of legendary names like Boycott, Kanhai, Anwar, Kirsten etc.I am now beginning to think that Sehwag is more of a freak, rather than a norm, simply because openers averaging close to or above 50 in test cricket over prolonged periods of time seems VERY rare. Maybe, just maybe, Sehwag is just a 40-42 average player. Maybe, his record got bloated by a few series in which he was in murderous form.

[kabira]

Pujara for opener?? But he plays at 4 for Saurashtra...not sure he is an opener as of now.

[fineleg]

Strange, till i saw these numbers, I was never really under the impression that Smith was out of form. He record has drooped a bit in the last many tests, something that had missed my attention till now. A thing that comes to my mind now is, are we being realistic in our expectations with Sehwag ? Is he really a 50-average-opener in the first place ? A cursory glances at the record tells me Sehwag is ahead of legendary names like Boycott, Kanhai, Anwar, Kirsten etc.I am now beginning to think that Sehwag is more of a freak, rather than a norm, simply because openers averaging close to or above 50 in test cricket over prolonged periods of time seems VERY rare. Maybe, just maybe, Sehwag is just a 40-42 average player. Maybe, his record got bloated by a few series in which he was in murderous form.

Finally, u are beginning to see things for what they are :two_thumbs_up:

[Dhondy]

Shwetabh, Graeme Smith, the skip, is not the only batsman who has benefited from the steadfastness of South African selectors. Take a look at this record.

 [FONT=MONOSPACE,COURIER NEW,COURIER]unfiltered            88  151   7  6140 228  211* 196   42.63  14  26   9
filtered              15   28   1   662  94   92   63   24.51   0   6   4

v Australia            3    6   0   113  53   18   17   18.83   0   1   1
v India                3    6   1    79  63    9    7   15.80   0   1   2
v New Zealand          3    5   0   104  63   25    8   20.80   0   1   0
v Pakistan             4    7   0   237  94   54   40   33.85   0   2   0
v Sri Lanka            2    4   0   129  92   19   18   32.25   0   1   1[/FONT]

Those figures represent the last 15 Test matches of one Herschelle Gibbs. A man with a career average far less than Sehwag's, persisted with despite a munificent return of 662 runs in the last 28 Test innings @ less than 25. Surprised? Just hold on for a mo. Let's eyeball the stats for another top order South African batsman, AB De Villiers, over the last 10 Tests.

 [FONT=MONOSPACE,COURIER NEW,COURIER]unfiltered            32   58   3  1954 178  114  109   35.52   3  11   0
filtered              10   18   2   347  77   47   45   21.68   0   1   0

v India                3    6   0   102  47   22   17   17.00   0   0   0
v New Zealand          2    2   0    66  33   33    -   33.00   0   0   0
v Pakistan             5   10   2   179  77   45   15   22.37   0   1   0[/FONT] 

Eighteen innings @

Having looked at the forbearance showed by far more patient selectors towards his peers, can anybody in the right mind claim that Sewhag deserved to be dropped when he did? I know that people will say, "Look at the way he kept getting out in SA". Sure, that's exactly how batsmen look when they are out of form. I just cited Hayden's example above. Gibbs has kept getting bowled through the gate, DeVilliers caught behind the wicket, Smith keeps falling across his stumps, but have they been given the short shrift like Sehwag? Anybody labelled them as incorrigible, shirker or complacent? TThe point is that if you truly believe in a player, and Sehwag deserves to be believed in- how many openers have averaged 50 for India over the years, scored double and triple tons in a derby or scored tons in SA, Australia, and England?- you go that extra mile with them, not dismiss them from your presence with royal insouciance after a fallow run of four Tests. There will be the usual arguments of "Oh, but SA doesn't have the bench strength that India has", but that's nonsense really. This is a side that has forced a player of the class of Jacques Rudolph to seek Kolpak status in England because he couldn't break in consistently into the national side. Australia had batsmen like Phil Jaques, with 10,000 international runs, waiting in the wings, while Hayden was given one more, and yet one more chance. Bench strength? Finally, woe to the inane arguments put forward such as, "Take out the 250 on that flat pitch in Pakistan, and what are you left with? Awright, exactly how many Indian batsmen scored double hundreds on those flat pitches in that series? The irony is that having missed out on several easy series against BD, a Hoggard and Harmison-less England and Pakistan's lightweight attack on somnolent pitches, Sehwag is being fattened for sacrifice on the toughest tour of all. There will be no second chances. If he fails, as the odds are that he will, he will be displaced in the home series against SA by pretenders such as Gambhir, who have a snowflake's chance in hell of scoring decent runs away from home against quality attacks. Anybody else think that shoulder injury was pretty conveniently timed? I have followed responses from some Aussie fans since his selection, and without exception, they have said that they wished Sehwag wasn't selected. They fear him, as any reasonable opposition fan would, for his ability to lay bane to their bowlers when it's his day, to take away the match from them in a matter of hours. A sentiment, idiots such as Sandip Patil (who orchestrated the media campaign for his ouster) and Dilip Vengsarkar would never understand. Funny how successive Indian captains have begged to differ, innit?

[FONT=MONOSPACE,COURIER NEW,COURIER][B]CC Super Series Test Match (Aus/ICC) in Australia, 2005/06[/B] [[URL="http://stats.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/SUPERS/SCORECARDS"]Series[/URL]]
               Aus     1    2   0    83  76    7    -   41.50   0   1   0
[B]Sri Lanka in India, 2005/06[/B] [[URL="http://stats.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/SL_IN_IND"]Series[/URL]]
               Ind     2    3   0    56  36   20    0   18.66   0   0   1
[B]India in Pakistan, 2005/06[/B] [[URL="http://stats.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/IND_IN_PAK"]Series[/URL]]
               Pak     3    4   0   294 254   31    5   73.50   1   0   0
[B]England in India, 2005/06[/B] [[URL="http://stats.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2005-06/ENG_IN_IND"]Series[/URL]]
                 -     3    6   1    95  76*  11    6   19.00   0   1   2
[B]India in West Indies, 2006[/B] [[URL="http://stats.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2006/IND_IN_WI"]Series[/URL]]
               Ind     4    7   0   357 180   65   41   51.00   1   1   1
[B]India in South Africa, 2006/07[/B] [[URL="http://stats.cricinfo.com/db/ARCHIVE/2006-07/IND_IN_RSA"]Series[/URL]]
                SA     3    6   0    89  40   33    8   14.83   0   0   1[/FONT]  

[Don]

great post dhondy totally agree on all counts.

[Guest BossBhai]

-- Removed on request of the user --

[Ram]

Wonderful post there by Doc..

[The Outsider]

Really good post, Dhondy and you have wonderfully expanded on my post which was limited to a Sehwag/Smith parallel. I still think he deserved to be dropped but not to go back to domestic cricket and find form, but just to give a little shake up. He was getting overweight and was not looking very committed. But players like Sehwag don't need to go back to domestics to show their class against Himachal Pradesh bowlers but jilted out of complacency, which just dropping him from the BD tour would have achieved. Surprising, you think he will fail in Australia. If given all 4 tests, I am sure he is going to score a hundred.

[Chandan]

:thumbs_up: Terrific post, Dhondy. I don't think Sehwag will fail as miserably in the series if he is played in all the four tests!

[bunny]

Dhondy: I'm glad that VS in included in the squad. He is definitely better than Gambhir, but I have some problems with your view. (i) You have given an example of Hayden. That he was persisted with and he finally managed to do well. But, there will also be lots of cases where a player was persisted with and he eventually failed, and so the persistence wasn't worth it. There has to be some failure threshold, no? Also, there have been cases where a player was dropped and he came back hungrier. (ii) DK did actually work for us in Eng, so the move definitely worked in the short term. (iii) It's not as if Gibbs and De villiers have succeeded. They might fail in another series. What are the SA selectors gonna do then, especially with Gibbs? (iv) You say VS might not do well in Aus, so he is unlucky. Well, he hasn't done well on seaming tracks and now if he can't do something in Aus, why do we need him? To score runs on flat tracks?

[bunny]

Also, forgot to add: (v) When VS was succeeding in test cricket, he used to play some risky shots on the off side which bowlers tried to exploit, but the shots worked for him more often than not. But, in the recent past he has been getting bowled when facing the in-cutters, so there was a technical problem as well, not just lack of form or bad luck. He ideally should have worked on this shortcoming when playing Ranji. Otherwise bowlers working to a plan will sort him out.

[Dhondy]

Dhondy: I'm glad that VS in included in the squad. He is definitely better than Gambhir, but I have some problems with your view. (i) You have given an example of Hayden. That he was persisted with and he finally managed to do well. But, there will also be lots of cases where a player was persisted with and he eventually failed, and so the persistence wasn't worth it. There has to be some failure threshold, no? Also, there have been cases where a player was dropped and he came back hungrier.

Please back up your post with some examples of players averaging ~50, who failed depite being given a long rope, say 10 Tests, as Hayden was, and I'll try and respond.

[talksport]

^ May be Andrew Strauss

[manoj_admlab]

Take out the 250 on that flat pitch in Pakistan, and what are you left with? Awright, exactly how many Indian batsmen scored double hundreds on those flat pitches in that series?

Dhondy, great post :two_thumbs_up: