We Indians tend to go off the deep end when it comes to our cricket players, and this is especially true for the media dealing with cricket news. Sehwag has played some marvelously entertaining, brilliant, unstoppable innings in New Zealand which was thought to be a difficult place for visiting teams and he is instantly eulogized and given the status of ‘world best’ or a ‘James Bond’ etc. of international cricket.

An internet publication has called him “undoubtedly the most destructive batsman in world cricket at the moment, not just in ODIs or T20s, but also in Test matches.” Now since ‘destructive’ is a term that is open to interpretation one may just agree, but to call him the best batsman in the world is still a stretch.

Sehwag may be the only batsman in current international cricket with two Test triple tons and may be among the most feared batsmen in international cricket facing up to the most formidable of oppositions with utter nonchalance, his strike rate may be amazing but he is still short of that tag of best in the world.

Admittedly Sehwag is in awesome form right now and is enough to send a chill down the spine of most bowlers (he simply has no respect for any bowler, always looking to bludgeon them in his own inimitable style), but for purists he leaves something to be desired.  

Even the purists however cannot fault his unique unpredictability that can stun and bewilder bowlers as will. Even traditionalists who laud correctness of style above all else cannot find fault with the fact that this is a player who refuses to be cowed down by pressure. He plays when he will and all the pressure in the world will not restrict him. His is the perfect example of the adage ‘When the going gets tough the tough get going’. However can you say with certitude that this is a person who can be relied on to perform every time the chips are down? Perhaps not, and in that sense here perhaps is a great, great batsman, but not yet perhaps a complete one!

Within the context of this Indian side being the best ODI side in international cricket right how (as former India leg-spinner B.S. Chandrasekhar described Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team recently), Sehwag may or may not be the best in the world, he unarguably is part of a bating line up that is the best in the world!

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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