The Paradox of Virender Sehwag
It is not surprising that Sehwag broke the Indian record for the fastest century in one-day internationals. What is surprising is that he took so long to do it. The recent match between India and New Zealand was Sehwag’s 204th ODI match in his 10th year of playing one-dayers. Sehwag played his first ODI at No. 7 scoring one run off 2 balls against Pakistan in Chandigarh in 1999.
Most people who see Sehwag batting when he is full flow would be nonplussed by comparing his statistics in Tests with those in ODI. According to conventional wisdom, a person like Sehwag should have no business playing Tests. The law of averages dictates that he would throw away his wicket quite often and end up with a miserable average. On the other hand, we would expect him to be enormously successful in one-dayers, especially since he is an opener and can use the fielding restrictions to aid his natural game.
But take a look at his stats. He has a poor ODI average (34.30). The better one-day batsmen all have above 40 averages and the great ones (like Bevan) hover around 50. Sehwag has few centuries (11) for the number of matches he played. The only redeeming fact is his superb strike rate (101.66) which means that he takes less than a ball to make a run.
In Tests, Sehwag can truly be called a legend in the making. He already has an average (51.06) that most batsmen would die for. He makes his runs at a stunning pace (78.14) and already has two triple-centuries to his name, one of them at more than a run per ball. He invariably crosses 150 when he makes a century.
Why is this so? How does he manage to throw his wicket away faster in ODIs than in Tests, even though the latter stage presents more challenges in making runs? One theory I have is that in Tests, Sehwag is constantly looking for runs and is able to dispatch the marginally bad ball whenever it occurs. In ODIs, he doesn’t have that luxury and he needs to throw his bat at even good balls, hoping he gets it right.
[Photo adapted and licensed from Flying Cloud]
One difference will be the field set-up between Tests and One day games. In One-days beside the powerplays field is pretty spread and your content to score runs and hence more probability to loose your wickets. In tests there is rarely a 3rd man spot which Sehwag loves to scoop over very often. With more slips, a mid-wicket stroke can yield a boundary. Even 2 or 3 boundaries will not change the fielding routines in tests which suits Sehwag’s natural game of lofting.
The paradox in the difference in Sehwag’s performance in ODIs versus Tests is similar to that for another attacking opener, Michael Slater. Inspite of taking many an opening session away from the opposition, he was not a fixture in the ODI squad. I think maybe we might overanalyze the bad and miss the glorious uninhibited hitting that Sehwag has served up. I’ve likened him to a force of nature on my blog at http://outsideedge.wordpress.com
what i feel about the average is, it’s most time depends on the number of matches you becomes not out and since he is coming as an opener it won’t happen freequently.. and like an explosive batsman like him i feel its a good average…