Spin tricks make Test cricket classic

How odd cricket is! After casting aspersions on their spinners only a month or two ago following England's triumphant walloping of their former colony, the Indians trumped an arguably more intimidating Australian outfit on yet another dustbowl in Chennai. It seems that spinning a web around the 'Roos is considerably easier than doing it to the Poms. And Australia shall now really have to pull off something extraordinary in the coming days to avoid further embarrassment ahead of the Ashes.

Turning the Tide: The Aussies were 'spun out'

The great thing to have come out of recent test cricket in India is further proof that cricket still is unique in being so vastly diverse a game. How one team dominating in a particular part of the world is so easily thwarted a few thousand miles away is so intriguing and exciting. The purists in Australia and England so often harp about how cricket in India is so "farcical", sidelining the traditional excitement of pace bowling and making cricket so boring and dreary. To many purists in the Westernized world, test cricket in India is essentially a game played in "slow motion" on "slow tracks" where the ball refuses to go to the batsman and the batsman tires in despair against the turning, twisting leather - so much in contrast to the tall, intimidating paceman steaming in on a "green top", threatening to take out the head of any soft-hearted batsman 22 yards away!

What the contrasting performances of the touring English and Australian batsmen has shown is so very different. The England team, desperate for a win and well aware of the dusty pitches the Indians were laying out for them, went on a countrywide hunt ahead of the tour looking for potential weapons and pulled out Monty Singh Panesar back from the graves, along with a certain unassuming Joseph Root from good old Yorkshire. The Australians, on the other hand, stayed true to their traditional strengths and vowed to bring along an extra-charged pace battery to the subcontinent, although including the off-spin of Nathan Lyon for academic purposes.

The Poms struggled in their first outing in Ahmedabad after keeping out Monty Panesar from the playing squad, but on correcting their mistakes in the dustbowls of Mumbai and Kolkata, reaped rewards that few of their ancestors had ever tasted before. It was England's most emphatic show of strength in India since the Battle of Plassey and the joy was more than evident. The star cast of England didn't just include their new-found spin twins Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar; in fact a more predominant performer in the tournament was their eternally classic captain Alastair Cook. Digging deep and grinding long, Captain Cook earned much accolade for his sense of application in alien conditions.

Cook's batting exploits throughout the tour was a fitting answer to the Western purists. He showed how classic test cricket is when a batsman patiently grafts the twisting, twirling ball, countering the spinner's tricks with a few of his own. The Indians had few questions to ask the English captain as he played on their patience and wore down their minds. The Australians in contrast so far have adopted their 'natural game', summoning courage and aggression with the hope of hitting the Indian spinners out of the game. The disdain hasn't worked.

Judging from their first game, the Aussies have much to learn about adapting to modern cricket's diverse playfields. They might also have to take a leaf or two out of Captain Cook's book. Test cricket in India is now the real deal. Playing spin isn't all about "slow motion" hurling or easy slogging. It's about beating the opponent in the mind. And that's what makes it ever so classic.

Is the Nawab already done?

Amongst all of world sport's most renowned, celebrated, decorated, scrutinized and news-making individuals, Virender Sehwag stands out. Sehwag is the kind of guy who can be furiously talked about irrespective of whether he's on the field or outside it - in team meetings around the world, selection committees across the country and opinion articles from all around the spectrum. What makes Sehwag special is his ability to be the eternal tick-ticking time bomb. He can be equally dangerous to his own team as to the opposition. He is both a captain's most lethal weapon as well as his greatest liability, all at the same time. In many ways, Sehwag is the most prime example of oxymorons one can ever come across - lazy yet efficient, destructive yet vulnerable, awkward yet terrifying.

Packing Up?: Virender Sehwag

It didn't take Sehwag too much time to tell the world, and particularly myself, that he was meant to be the next big thing of world cricket history. It was Bloemfontein, early November, 2001. The South African pace attack of Pollock, Hayward, Kallis and Ntini was feasting on the Indian batsmen, sending down hostile swinging deliveries at furious pace. Very quickly, the Indians subsided to 68/4 with Tendulkar hapless at the non-striker's end. Then came the debutant Delhi dasher. Few had heard of him and his technique, if there was any, seemed to suggest that the Indian selectors were surely out of their minds giving this man a Test debut in alien South Africa. But history was on its way. Sehwag, wielding his willow like an axe, butchered each bowler running in to him and sent the South Africans on a nationwide leather hunt. Balls travelled far and wide as Tendulkar and Sehwag turned an impending disaster into a fair lot of 397 runs. The world hailed the centurion Sehwag as the new age Vivian Richards. Sir Viv himself paid homage to a star - "He's simply magnificent."

Years later, Sehwag took his 'axe' around the world, hacking bowlers into submission, sending balls into the sea. A particular innings of 195 against Steve Waugh's largely unblemished Australians in Melbourne was described by Ian Chappell as the "second best innings I've ever seen in my life. That was the best Australian side ever and he absolutely demolished them."

100 Tests, 2 triple hundreds (nearly three) and close to 17000 international runs later, Virender Sehwag is sitting on the bench outside. Bowlers around the world might heave a sigh of relief, but to Sehwag lovers around the world, irrespective of whether Sehwag is done now or not, his career shall always be about the difference between what could have been and what is. There is no reason to Sehwag's inconsistencies with the bat - not the pitch, not the weather, not the opposition. Sehwag's weaknesses are the strangest. He's one of those people who can plunder hundreds of runs in a day in particular conditions and come out the next day to get dismissed the first ball in a totally identical situation. Many say it's callousness. Others say it's laziness. Gregory Chappell, his former India coach and life-long admirer, reckons it's simply the lack of willingness to work hard enough. "Sehwag is so naturally talented that he's never really had to work too hard to do the things he does."

Is he really? One will never know what it feels like to be Virender Sehwag. He holds all aces to the outcome of a match. He throws the dice and either team falls. Perhaps that's what makes Sehwag so exciting - the unpredictability. A match is never lost or won before Sehwag is done. He backs himself to keep it simple. Batting to him is the exercise of putting willow on leather and sending the latter as far as possible. There are no unnecessary complications; no ifs-and-buts; no question marks; no game plans; no extensions.

Maybe Sehwag isn't done yet. It's extremely difficult for any team in the world to keep a player like Virender Sehwag in the reserves for too long. You can't ignore him even if you do hate him. Often, it's impossible to hate him. He revolutionized batsmanship and got rid of cricket's excesses and complexities. I can't wait to see him back. To me, there is no flavour in cricket without Virender Sehwag.