The Art of Sehwag

Comp probs have meant that I haven't been updating the blog regulary. From here on, I plan to post often, infact daily. Lets see... Here is a writeup on Virender Sehwag. Sometime back I had written on his one day blues. Here I have tried to concentrate on his technique.

The Art of Sehwag

"My standout shot was off Rana Naved, when he hit a perfect good length ball for a straight drive. It went like a bullet to the fence and nobody, including Sehwag, moved"- Imran Khan on Virender Sehwag.


It was quite a sight. Even as the ball rose from the dust, Sehwag's back lift had reached its apogee and his back foot moved a little behind - straight back as opposed to back and across- and as the red cherry sped towards him, down came the flashing blade in a smooth downswing and met the ball flush in the middle. All this while, his head was still, absolutely still.

Greg Chappell has credited Sehwag's brilliance to an uncluttered mind and its product- an uncomplicated technique. It's worth analyzing his technique in detail. Although he modeled his game on his idol Sachin Tendulkar, his game depends more on eye-hand coordination. The back lift is higher; there is more of the wrist-cock which results in high bat speed that brings it down in a flurry and imparts momentum to the ball at the point of contact. And the movement of the feet or the almost lack of it is the most crucial one. His head is absolutely still and there is no movement of the feet till the ball is delivered. Then depending on his swift perception of the length of the ball, he moves or prefer to stays rooted. If it's short, he goes back, his back foot usually moves almost straight back as opposed to conventional back and across which is the vital element in his technique. That leaves him beside the line of the ball – some batsmen prefer getting behind the line - and his square-on position creates room, where none exists, for even a ball at stumps. If it bounces, he just sways back, balancing his weight to his right foot and uses his wrists for his dashing fierce upper-cuts and slashes. And if that short ball is on the stumps, even on the middle, he brings his bat almost parallel to the ground, bat face open towards the ball and uses his arms and firms his wrists to punch it over the slips.


The judicious movement of the feet, allied of course with his quick eye, allows him even to hit the good length balls on the up. Tendulkar moves towards the ball with a minimal back-lift and it's the fierce punch at the moment of the impact which allows him to drive on-the-up. Sehwag on the other hand, doesn't hurry his movements towards the ball, rather waits on his crease, with a little movement back and since he never gets his left feet across his downwards backswing comes down unimpeded and smoothly like a golf swing. This generates tremendous bat speed and transfers furious kinetic energy to the ball.


His uncluttered footwork also helps him negotiate the reverse swing adeptly. His left foot –the front foot - never comes across, as it does for many batsmen, and so he is never cramped when the final blast of in swing starts and the bat comes down unimpeded. The swing finishes its late movement and red cherry goes past his front foot and when about to pass the back foot, his blade crashes against its head and a fluent drive results.


If he treated the pacers nonchalantly against spin he is at his explosive best. Danish Kaneria, who Pakistan wisely held back for the second Test to prevent Sehwag denting his confidence, was merrily attacked in his short spell at Lahore. Three men prowled behind a silly point on the offside ring and Kaneria threw it up on the off and middle stump, turning it away, occasionally spinning back in but Sehwag scorched the area between cover and long off. Against the spinners there is an initial front foot movement as he mostly transfers his weight to the left foot and if it's in his driving range, the bat will crash through the line of the ball. If it dips and falls short of his perceived length, he will slog sweep it over on the onside or just go through the line of the ball and on most occasions his extravagant flourish will take it over the infield easily. If it's of shortish length, he will rock back to cut.


Only the fast, short pitched stuff aimed at his ribs disconcerts him. I was witness to an Irani Trophy game in 2003 – involving Mumbai and Rest of India – in Chennai. Tendulkar, who captained Mumbai, pitted his wits against Sehwag. He placed a leg slip, a man behind square and another just in front and with a man prowling at long leg and instructed Ajit Agarkar to operate round the wickets and pitch it short at Sehwag's ribs. Alas Agarkar couldn't quite get his radar right but couple of balls were on target; Sehwag jumped and shut his eye, thrusting his bat out. The balls popped up but just fell short of the waiting men. The West Indians first hit upon it, in a series in India, as their bowlers dug a few into his ribs and found to their immense delight Sehwag just tamely pushing out a weak swivel-pulled catches to backward short leg or square-leg. He however has worked on it a lot – with plastic and synthetic balls- and although he still doesn't possess a proper pull, his swivel shots are not that weak and he manages to use his wrists to get the ball down, even if he looks a bit ungainly while doing that. That still is his weak area but one needs express pace and accuracy- something seen rarely in the cricketing world today- to target and exploit. It would be fascinating to watch if Shoaib Akhtar manages to get his radar right in the second Test at Faisalabad where hopefully a sporting track awaits us.

There is an interesting story - on footwork - that I should mention here. Not on Sehwag but that involving Majid Khan, the stylish former Pakistan batsman, told by his Glamorgan colleague Peter Walker in his fantastic book Cricket Conversations. The incident occurred during a nets session after a game against Sussex where Jim Parks jr had put the Glamorgan bowlers – including Don Sheperd - to sword. Majid Khan's team-mates reckoned it was the speed and precision of Park Jr's that helped him bled their attack. Majid, a silent spectator to the discussion, spoke at the end, "You don't need any footwork in batting, just hands and eye". That astonishing statement was contested hotly and his team-mates demanded him to prove it on field. Over to Walker: "Within fifteen minutes, three of our front-line bowlers, including Sheperd, lined up in a net outside with Majid padded up at the other end about to have his theory demolished. For twenty minutes, on a rough, unprepared, and quite-impossible-to-bat-on wicket where the ball flew, shot, seamed and turned, Majid Khan stood absolutely motionless, parrying the ball as it lifted, cutting or hooking unerringly if it were wide, driving with frightening power if over pitched and swaying out of harm's way when it lifted unexpectedly. Unless he allowed it, not a single ball passed his bat, not a chance was given, not a false stroke made. The bowlers were at full throttle, yet by our own reckoning afterwards that twenty-minute session must have yielded the young Pakistani around 75 runs! He had just defied every known textbook instruction, improvised strokes that just did not exist and, without uttering a word, had emphatically made his point. In the presence of genius, no rules apply."


Sehwag is similarly gifted, not just a butcher, and his footwork is not a lackadaisical or absolutely non-existent. He knows his game so well that all he looks for with his foot movement, as any batsman should, is to maintain a perfect balance that helps with his style of play. It would be however very interesting to see him operate once his quick eye slows up a bit but for that we have to wait a few years, till then we can relax back in our couch and enjoy the fabulous Sehwag show.