Virender Sehwag might be nursing a shoulder injury which has kept him away from the limelight, but he hasn't lost the gift of the gab or his intolerance in dealing with impertinence. "I feel good facing the media after a long gap," he joked on arrival at a promotional event and also said, "I had heard that the rains has deserted Mumbai. "But since I was coming to this city, may be the rain Gods decided to show up again to welcome me," he said. He quickly got into serious mode though and didn't share the opinion of the media and the pundits that the search for India's perfect opening pair starts and ends with Sehwag and Gambhir. Sehwag, while lamenting the fact that the younger crop didn't avail of the opportunities on the West Indies tour, offered a thumbs up to Tamil Nadu's Abhinav Mukund. Sharing the opinion of the legendary opening batsman, Sunil Gavaskar, who in his TOI column had praised the southpaw for his battling approach, Sehwag said, "Mukund has done well in the West Indies and he is a talented batsman. If you see his domestic record, he has more centuries than half-centuries and he also has a triple hundred," he said.
On the other youngsters missing on the opportunity to make a mark, Sehwag felt, "When the senior players are rested or don't travel on a tour due to injury, talented youngsters are picked and they should exploit such opportunities." However, he quickly added that Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are blessed with a lot of talent and have done reasonably well. Known for his clarity and uncluttered approach, the dynamic opener was surprisingly unclear about his injury status. To the media, he stated, "It'll still take me a week to get back to peak fitness and I'll be travelling to NCA in Bangalore to resume batting practice."
However, when a fan questioned him about the same and told him that the media has reported about the possibility of him missing the first Test at Lord's (starting July 21) and be fully fit only for the second Test starting in Trent Bridge (starting July 29), an irritated Sehwag thundered, "Why do you believe everything that's written in the papers? Everything that's written in the papers isn't true."
What is true though is the fact that Sehwag is an uninhibited supporter of the UDRS. He once again stressed his love for the technology. "I'm a big fan of it. Even the Hawk-Eye is a good tool." One wonders how the BCCI and Sehwag's idol, Sachin Tendulkar will react to that quote as they haven't been advocates of the hawk-eye and the ball-tracking system. What they will react positively to is the fact that the opener has made his plans for ace England off-spinner Graeme Swann.
"When they were here in 2008, we faced him well and that too on a fifth-day pitch. We chased 387 to win the Test in Chennai. I will study him and plan accordingly." If he does master the offie and the potent England attack comprising of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Chris Tremlett, he should emulate VVS Laxman, who recently became the fourth Indian batsman to achieve the milestone of 8,000 Test runs. He is 306 runs shy of that target at the moment.
Trent Bridge is where he made his mark as a Test opener, scoring a gutsy hundred there in 2002 and if one is a believer in lucky omens, then Trent Bridge could be the venue where the journey from a good opener to a great one is complete. There's another lucky omen too for all you Sehwag fans. The last time he was part of a touring team as a 17th member, he scored a 150-odd in Adelaide in 2007-08. That was a start of a remarkable comeback. He had missed the first two Tests then. Four years later, he's touring England too and yes as a 17th member.
