See ball.. Hit ball..

Few people make you take notice of them because of their expertise in a chosen field of endeavor, few for their their physical attractiveness. But, very few because of their very presence. One such person from the cricketing world in Virender Sehwag – fondly known as the Nawab of Najafgarh.

The purists of the game would frown at the way he plays the game and the coaches point to him to show a living example to kids on how not to play cricket – such is the lack of footwork in his game. Despite this, he is one of finest cricketers of contemporary cricket. Blessed with an uncluttered mind and operating with the simple rule ‘see ball, hit ball’ irrespective of the situation of the match, he remains a nightmare to all the bowling attacks in the world.

A normal batsman’s modus operandi is like this – you walk in to bat, get your eye in, play few defensive shots, try middling the ball, a couple of gentle pushes and jabs into the gaps to grow in confidence, few sweetly timed shots to get into the flow before starting to score in boundaries. But, with Sehwag, step 7 follows immediately after step 1. He walks in to bat and the carnage starts.

This attitude of his, spills onto press conferences too. A press conference is not a place where questions are answered directly. It is a place where one answers questions in a way that the answer cleverly eludes the question and the person who puts it forth, with a subtle attempt to come close to answering but vague enough for anyone including the person telling it to understand.

Viru has often been quoted saying things like “Bangladesh is an ordinary team, they cannot defeat India in Tests!” on the eve of a test match series. Well, it is Virender Sehwag, the swashbuckling cricketer we are speaking about. Diplomacy much like technically adept batting was in vogue!