If Sachin Tendulkar batted like Virender Sehwag…

It’s a question I’ve always wanted to ask: If Sachin Tendulkar batted like Virender Sehwag, would his records have been even greater?

This is not an attempt to compare the two. It is merely curiosity. The two are among India’s greatest ever batsmen but while Tendulkar has evolved over the years, Sehwag has chosen to stick to his guns; to his own methods — they have worked and how!

Tendulkar, to begin with, was a dasher. He played his shots — drive shots on the rise, the pull, the hook, the quick shuffle down the wicket to hit the spinner over his head. And many more but then the tennis elbow happened. He aged too. From a warrior, he evolved to a philosopher — a mentor, who was just as deadly.

Sehwag, on the other hand, just doesn’t learn. Anyone who has watched him over the years will still remember his 195 against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He got hit on the helmet twice during the innings; he still gets hit on the helmet pretty regularly for a top batsman. But it didn’t bother him then, it still doesn’t bother him.

He got out going for a six off a non-regular bowler. But that didn’t faze him a bit. The Australian media piled on the praise hailing him as ‘part-Houdini, part-Superman.’ And using that innings as a starting point, he has matured into a fine, fine batsman – the best opener in the world according to many.

But still… imagine if Tendulkar batted like Sehwag and played for 22 years – would his domination of the record books be even greater? What would it be to be in Sehwag’s shoes?

For starters, while taking guard against the fastest bowlers in the world, Tendulkar would be humming Lata Mangeshkar or Mohd Rafi songs and nonchalantly swinging at anything in his strike zone.

Tendulkar’s strike-rate would be higher – in ODIs as well as Tests. Sehwag, for instance, has needed just 9717 balls to score 7980 runs in Tests and his 8000-plus ODI runs have been at faster than a run-a-ball. There would be mad phases too – when he would go after every ball, trying to hit them all out of the ground. And of course, there would be the customary try-to-get-to-the-landmark-with-a-big-shot approach.

Tendulkar usually says that milestones don’t mean much to him. Sehwag goes out and does it. If Tendulkar played like Sehwag – he would be free of the burden of being Tendulkar, of being Atlas to India because the Nawab of Najafgarh redefines cool.

The other change would be the manner is which Tendulkar would speak. At times, the master batsman seems conscious of his stature, he avoids controversy. Sehwag merely speaks his mind – like the time when he said that Bangladesh weren’t good enough to take 20 wickets against India in a Test match – without worrying about the after-effects. In essence, he bats in the same manner.

Tendulkar would have also got perhaps a few more big centuries – simply because the he would score more runs for all the balls he spent in the middle.

But all in all, the very fact that we even wonder about this is because Sehwag has broken every rule and still risen to the top. Rules simply don’t exist for him. His brand of batsmanship is his own – indeed, has cricket ever seen his like before? His 219 was testament to the fact that his cricket isn’t weighed down by the past. He is all about the now and what a now it is.