The pragmatist

On a remarkably slow news day, thank god for Virender Sehwag.

Harsha, while talking to me recently of the phenomenon of Indian
players hitting the big time, tasting success, and then going off the
boil to the point where they get dropped, mentioned Sehwag in that
context, and then added “In my opinion, Viru is the most balanced of
the lot — in fact among the most balanced in the team.”

Here’s an interesting interview
with the man. In an interaction replete with interesting bits, this q
& a is to my mind the most typical of his brand of thinking:

There is this story about you declining a
nightwatchman, where you said you were not an able batsman if you
couldn’t last 25 balls at the end of the day. Is that true?

It is true. What is the difference between batting at the
end of the day or at the start? If you make a mistake you’ll get out.
So I don’t think a batsman really needs a nightwatchman, but it is
totally an individual decision. Whenever a captain or coach asked me
for a nightwatchman I would say, “No, why? If I can’t survive 10 or 20
balls now, then I don’t think I’ll survive tomorrow morning.” I believe
that’s the best time when you have the opportunity to score runs, when
everybody on the field is tired and you can score 20 runs off those 20
balls.

Also check out the bit relating to Sourav Ganguly’s take on Viru. While on that, this is my favorite Sehwag story.