Asia Cup 2008

The Prodigy Returns

Virender Sehwag’s comeback to the Indian team is complete.

A year ago, he was fading into oblivion after his ODI form had fallen to new lows with each match, while his test form was still good, he wasn’t the same player as before. From being the captain-in-waiting to being dropped first in South Africa on tour, to being played as a spin option only to finally being shown the door after the world cup, 2007 was a disaster for him.

With the T20 world cup win, he got some off his reputation back and then was in & out of the team ever since. He made it to the test squad for tour of Australia and the world was suddenly acknowledging a new Sehwag. The one who bides his time and curbs his instincts, waiting for the bad ball to come. He himself stated after the match saving ton in Adelaide that ‘you will see a new me’.

And so we have, as ever since his return, he has gone from strength to strength and it culminated with his first ODI century in three years against a test team. The odd point was the fact that immediately after reaching his ton, he defended the ball with a straight bat, while earlier he might have looked to hit everything out of the park.

Out of his nine hundreds, eight of them have resulted in Indian wins. Surely a new thinking Sehwag is an even better news for Indian cricket. Bowlers beware!

Tags: indian team, veeru, virender sehwag