Sehwag's roller-coaster ride continues

Has there ever been a roller-coaster ride in Indian cricket comparable to that of Virender Sehwag's whose batting has touched stratospheric levels at times before plumbing the depths on other occasions? The Delhi swashbuckler rose to prominence in 1999 through one-day internationals before stunning one and all with his spitfire batting in Tests that has fetched him over 5700 runs in 69 matches to date.
    
The fact that eleven of his 15 Test tons are scores in excess of 150, including an Indian record of two triple and three double centuries, tells its own story of how much and how quickly he decimates the opposition bowlers and rattles them into submission. But there have also been times when the legion of his fans have been forced into frustration at the manner in which he has thrown away his wicket just when they had expected him to take the leather off the ball with his audacious stokeplay.
    
Sehwag was not even in the original list of 30 players for the last Australian tour in end-2007, after having lost his place in the Indian team due to a poor run, before he was inducted in because of his splendid previous tour Down Under. Having lost the vice captaincy meanwhile, the flamboyant opener was not included by the team's think tank in the first two Tests before the tour selectors realised their folly with India trailing 0-2 and inducted him for the Perth Test.
   
Sehwag made a worthwhile return with a brisk innings of 72 to play a key role in India's sensational and historic win at the WACA and then made a fighting 151 in the second innings, batting in a manner that was alien to him, to help his team save the fourth and final Test at Adelaide. Having resurrected his interrupted international career so splendidly, he announced it with a bigger bang in the home series against South Africa with a career-best 319 in the drawn opener at Chennai.
    
During the course of that fabulous, attacking innings, he reached 300 in a record fastest 278 balls, but thereafter his success at the Test level has been modest, except in Sri Lanka where all other top-order batsmen were flummoxed by the mystery spin of Ajantha Mendis. In five other Tests, two against England at home and three away in New Zealand, Sehwag has performed below-par with a total tally of 249 runs, averaging around 28, with only one half century (83 against England) to boot.

It contrasts sharply with his career average of plus-50.  But Sehwag's form in 50-over cricket during the same period has been phenomenal, fetching him a tally of 1130 runs in 19 ties at a high average of 62.77, which is far in excess of his career average of 32-plus in ODIs. Twenty20 internationals have not seen him at his best, leading to talks in some quarters that he does not want to open in this form of the game.
    
Now comes another break in his career, due to the right shoulder injury that he sustained in the IPL in South Africa and carried into the Twenty20 World Championship in England as the vice captain of the team and which subsequently led him to the surgical table in London. The injury has ruled him out of cricket action for between 12 and 16 weeks. The rest and rehabilitation process is going to be a slow and steady affair and expected to last till the end of August, raising serious doubts whether he would be match fit for the ICC Champions Trophy commencing September 24 in South Africa.
    
Sehwag's likely absence in the tournament would certainly be a major blow for India's hopes, especially with signs of him having come to terms with the ebbs and flows of the 50-over game in the last twelve months. However, the bigger question is how far would the repaired joint hamper Sehwag's carefree style of batting in the immediate future.
   
It's the right shoulder which would come prominently into action for his pull shots, slashes over third man and his patented whippy shots played off the hip. Sehwag's idol and role model Sachin Tendulkar had to re-orient his batting style after undergoing shoulder surgery a few years ago under the same surgeon whom he has now consulted, Dr Andrew Wallace.
    
Millions of his fans would be waiting with bated breath for Sehwag's return to the national side, probably in the seven-match ODI series at home against Australia in October-November after the conclusion of the Champions Trophy. That series could, perhaps, be a pointer to whether the Delhi marauder can recapture his ability to bat in his patented fashion, especially on the on-side, or would need to reshape his batting style a bit.