Chennai: Virender Sehwag's patchy form continued but skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni still believes that the senior opener should be given more time to get back to form as he is a match-winner.
Asked about the performance of Sehwag, who played in the Test wearing spectacles, Dhoni said,I think we just need to give him more time. Well, that's how he bats. About Viru pa, I've said this plenty of times before, when he scores runs, he looks a fantastic player and when he doesn't, you can question the shot he played or the way he played.
He's someone who's always played with that sort of flair. At times, we get very critical about him. We all know he is someone who can change the course of the game, he's an attacking player. So let's go forward with that kind of an attitude, he said.
Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were among those whose slogged out for batting practice while off-spinner Harbhajan Singh had a lengthy bowling drill as the Indian team went for two grinding training sessions for the second successive day here today.
Tailenders Ishant Sharma and Ashok Dinda also batted with remarkable seriousness at the nets at National Cricket Academy here facing out-of-system young bowlers. The duo batted for 45 minutes in turns apparently reflecting Indian team's earnestness to help the tailenders improve their batting.
Harbhajan, who could play in his 100th Test in the series against his favourite opposition side, spent considerable time bowling at the top order batsmen at the Chinnaswany Stadium ground.
Later, he worked on his bowling at the NCA along with Team India bowling coach Joe Dawes for nearly an hour. He had long chats with Joe, who was a fast bowler in his heydays.
Virender Sehwag may or may not know Andrea Pirlo. But for those have seen the elegant Italian play -- the experience is pretty special. He has settled into a slightly deeper role in the midfield -- he commands the troops with his sweeping vision and his through passes have the artist's touch.
But in 2011, Pirlo was disillusioned by an injury-disrupted campaign at AC Milan. He sensed that he was no longer wanted by coach Massimiliano Allegri or influential chief executive Adriano Galliani. He knew that he needed to make a change, he knew that if he wanted to add to his 80 caps for Italy, he would need to find some form.
But Pirlo was turning 32 and many thought he was past his best. Luckily enough, in Turin, someone believed in his talent.
Virender Sehwag has been dropped for the first three one-dayers against England and it is time India looked beyond him for an opener in the 50-over game. The truth is Sehwag, the ODI opener, was never as good as Sehwag, the Test opener. His destructive batting in the five-day game, his ability to pierce the field at will and dispatch even good balls to the boundary, always implied that he would thrive in limited-overs cricket. But for some reason he was never able to dominate the same way.
While he scores at over a run-a-ball in ODIs - his strike-rate is 104.33 - Sehwag's career average of 35.05 is almost 10 runs lower than Sachin Tendulkar's. Fifteen hundreds from 245 innings is also not the kind of return one would expect from a batsman of his abilities. In all, he has 53 scores over 50, so he fires in roughly one game out of every five.
However, it is the last 12 months have been have been the most damning. Sehwag has always thrived on his hand-eye co-ordination. He sees the ball earlier than most and his natural timing has allowed him to punish even good balls. But age takes its greatest toll on precisely these attributes.
Kolkata: India opener Virender Sehwag today lashed out at the batsmen for showing lack of patience and held them responsible for putting the hosts on the verge of a heavy defeat in the third Test against England here.
If you apply yourself on this wicket, it's not that difficult to score runs. It's Test cricket and you have to show some patience. Yes you can say that (we did not show enough patience). The key was the patience, Sehwag told reporters after the fourth day's play.
The Delhi player believed that things could have been different had India posted a big first-innings total. In this series, we have not put runs on the board, especially in the last two Tests. The moment we put 500-plus, it's going to be a different ballgame.
Virender Sehwag's 100th test. Sachin Tendulkar in his home ground. And Cheteshwar Pujara, who might be a combination of both Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.
For any cricket fan, no, Test cricket fan, this has to be ample reason to abandon drawing room viewing and book tickets to see a Test match at Wankhede in Mumbai. It was reason enough for me. The second India-England Test was in Mumbai.
And there the process began. I called the ground a number of times, asked friends - but was told unequivocally that this isn't the IPL, ticket information will come out only a week before the match. And so three days before, we bought tickets, also to be told that one can't choose seats -- take the seats you get. And, there are no per day tickets -- if you want to watch one day's play, pay for all five. No choice, get the drift?
