End of the road for Sehwag?

Seeing Virender Sehwag at his best, thrashing bowlers for boundaries all around the park, has always been a cricket lover’s delight. However, in the present situation, Viru may find it difficult to make it back to the Indian team with the kind of form he is in. And now with Delhi Daredevils making it clear that Viru will no longer be a part of the team, it would be firstly very difficult for him to get a good price at the IPL auction, and also be tough to get used to a new team environment. With the 2015 World Cup in just a year, things look really bleak for Sehwag. On top of it, with India sitting pretty as the No. 1 ODI team, and a plethora of youngsters performing really well even in Tests, it is unlikely Sehwag will get another shot. It is going to be an uphill task for Sehwag to return to the Indian squad. Only if Dhawan or Vijay, who also has been brilliant in the recent test matches, do not perform well for a brief period of time and Sehwag does exceptionally well in the domestic circuit then there is a slight chance. Happening of both the events are highly unlikely. Adding to his woes, he has found runs hard to come by in domestic cricket too.

India’s ascent to the number one position in Test cricket in November 2009 would not have been possible without Sehwag at the top of the order. It is impossible to forget the 284 he scored on a single day at the CCI against Sri Lanka in 2009 in the match that made India the world number one test team. He was eventually out for 293 in this innings, missing out on his 3rd Test triple hundred. Sehwag, for the record, is the only Indian to have scored two international triple hundreds. And to think that such a player is nowhere in the selectors radar at the start of 2014 is somewhat impossible to believe.

Sehwag’s record in matches post the World Cup has been an ordinary one. Apart from the one big knock of 219 against the West Indies, the rest of the scores have been quite disappointing. His inconsistent run made the selectors ignore his case for inclusion in the team.

The problem with Sehwag that his reflexes are slowing down, he is aging and for a player who relies heavily on hand eye co-ordination. He has also lost his motivation, and looks unwilling to correct out his mistakes from a senior coach. His attitude at the crease looks lazy and there seems no intent. We all know what Sehwag can do to any attack. Maybe he needs to pick and choose games to conserve his energy. He can altogether skip T20s and ODIs where India already has a lot of players in the waiting and focus totally on Test cricket as it is a young Indian team and Sehwag’s experience will prove very handy. Also, Perhaps not being retained by Delhi isn’t a bad thing for him altogether. It could be a welcome change.

I tend to believe Sehwag still has a last spark left in him. He can still tonk the ball and do it for India. He can make up for his lost reflexes with experience and just like Sachin had reinvented himself at age 35 in 2007-08, Sehwag can have one final hurrah.