Why is Sehwag so good: My analysis

[social]

Sehwag's great balance contributes to the most important aspect in batting - it keeps his head in the correct position.

The best footwork in cricket wont help you if you do not have the correct eye alignment.

Garry Sobers once told me to concentrate on head position and the rest will follow. The more cricket I watch/played emphasised how correct he was.

[Scallywag]

Originally Posted by sledger

i completely disagree, a player like sehwag is no good on a bad pitch when a team is about 85-5 lets say, you cannot start playing attacking shots you need to scrap and look for the singles, that is where thorpe is invaluable, in a teams like england anyway he is very much needed, almost all of the test teams have players that can scrap and dig in.

Teams dont end up at 85-5 when Sehwag opens. He is a run machine.

[Jono]

Very very good post CC. Probably the best I've read of yours. He is most definitely an enigma, but he is just so entertaining and valuable to the Indian team, its amazing. He just makes runs consistently, and at an extremely fast rate too.

[tooextracool]

while most of the things mentioned by c_c are true, i feel he left the most important reason out. sehwag is not such a consistent batsman simply based on those things. rather its because, like it or not, he is a very intelligent player with a great presence of mind and brilliant shot selection. most people seem to dismiss him as a slogger, which is complete and total garbage, and would come from someone who hasnt analysed anything about sehwag and would desperately need to watch anyone of sehwags first few 100s or for that matter his 155 against australia all of which were perfect examples of well constructed grafting innings. and anyone who says that he doesnt have a good technique, is clearly out of his mind.
as ive said on several occasions before, sehwag is more than capable of playing watchfully and hes more than capable of playing agressively as well, something which gilchrist is incapable of. what sehwag does, is that when the bowling is rubbish even if its a spell, he will try to tear it apart, which leads him to playing with barely any footwork, and because his hand eye coordination is so good hes going to succeed more often than not against rubbish bowlers. if the bowling is good or the pitch is difficult to bat on, then he goes into his shell and plays the waiting game, in which case his technique is usually fairly good, certainly no one can claim that sehwag's defence is poor or anything of the sort, and when he gets a bad ball he pounces on it, with or without footwork, again bad balls are unlikely to get someone with his eye out, even if he doesnt use his feet. this treating good bowling with respect and giving poor bowling what it deserves is precisely what makes a great player, and sehwag is the one that uses it better than any other player has done before.

[Slats4ever]

great post man.. i never knew that shewag was so consistant... show's how underrated the guy is and how overrated tendulkar is.

[social]

Trouble is that Tendulkar has achieved similar results to Sehwag over 100 tests not 30 +.

And Tec, to say that Gilchrist is incapable of playing carefully is nonsense. His genius stems from the fact that no-one in 70 tests has worked out how to contain him for extended periods. Maybe that makes him a better player than Sehwag

[Slats4ever]

yeah true social but his achievments of late fall into insignificance when compared to shewags...

[aussie]

Originally Posted by tooextracool

sehwag is more than capable of playing watchfully and hes more than capable of playing agressively as well, something which gilchrist is incapable of.

Now now tec, how can u say that, u know thats bogus, Gilly isn't all crash, bang, wallop he can play carefully, two major recent examples were his 104 in the Bangalore test and his 49 in the second innings of the chennai test where he came out batted with a great deal of purpose

[tooextracool]

Originally Posted by aussie

Now now tec, how can u say that, u know thats bogus, Gilly isn't all crash, bang, wallop he can play carefully, two major recent examples were his 104 in the Bangalore test and his 49 in the second innings of the chennai test where he came out batted with a great deal of purpose

umm it came off 109 balls with 3 sixes. every gilchrist 100 has come off something near a run a ball.

[tooextracool]

Originally Posted by social

And Tec, to say that Gilchrist is incapable of playing carefully is nonsense. His genius stems from the fact that no-one in 70 tests has worked out how to contain him for extended periods. Maybe that makes him a better player than Sehwag

theres a differnece between playing carefully and no one working him out. i havent said that theres anything wrong with gilchrist's game, i was just pointing out something that gilchrist isnt capable off.

[FaaipDeOiad]

Originally Posted by Slats4ever

yeah true social but his achievments of late fall into insignificance when compared to shewags...

I don't see how. They have both had a great time of it recently, and played several match winning innings.

[Zinzan]

Originally Posted by tooextracool

theres a differnece between playing carefully and no one working him out. i havent said that theres anything wrong with gilchrist's game, i was just pointing out something that gilchrist isnt capable off.

Agree. Ironically I see Gilchrist's strength as a weakness. The fact he plays with such "hard-hands" early in his innings gives the bowling team a real chance. Once he's in, he is at least as devastating as Sehwag,if not more so.

But if luck doesn't go his way (which it has for him recently) or the fielding side takes the half-chances early on, i feel he's more of a chance than Sehwag. Particularly early on.

Although he's been sensational all summer in the tests against NZ, he's been fortunate early on in almost all of his innings , never been out LBW, has been dropped and got away with a lot of mis-cues early on.

I'm not suggesting he's always been lucky, I just think things have gone his way lately and he's having a good run. Unlike batsmen like Dravid and Kallis who play high percentages, I think even the biggest Gilchrist fan would acknowledge he does rely on a lot luck. Having said that, thats what makes him such an entertainer.

[Eclipse]

Shewag = extream talent

that's it.. his techneque is good but not great look at his first movement it's back and away, that's very unusual for an opener. or any class batsman.

[Slats4ever]

Originally Posted by FaaipDeOiad

I don't see how. They have both had a great time of it recently, and played several match winning innings.

tendulkar's had 2 alright innings recently but they weren't match winning. shewag beats the current tendulkar hands down.

[FaaipDeOiad]

Originally Posted by Slats4ever

tendulkar's had 2 alright innings recently but they weren't match winning. shewag beats the current tendulkar hands down.

Sorry, I thought you were talking about Gilchrist, not Tendulkar. Agreed then, Sehwag has been much more impressive of late.