Can Virender Sehwag script one final hurrah?

Can Sehwag sign off on a high?

Virender Sehwag’s recent interview instilled a sense of sadness, not just amongst the Indian viewers. His fan club includes the crème de la crème of the cricket fraternity. He has his detractors, too. Geoffrey Boycott once referred to him as “talented but brainless”, but Sehwag was least affected by the English stalwart’s opinion.

“Boycott can say what he wants. He once batted the whole day and hit just one four,” came the tangy reply. Reputations didn’t evoke a different approach in him, as is obvious in the aforesaid statement, be it off the field or on it. He has turned ‘I play the ball, not the bowler’ into a cliché, but there is no mistaking the phrase in Sehwag’s case. He calls it as he sees it.

From Sir Viv Richards to Matthew Hayden, the finest of players across eras seldom refrain from hailing Sehwag as the most destructive batsman they’ve seen. The Telegraph reckoned he was the greatest player of the decade, ahead of Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Jacques Kallis and Sachin Tendulkar.

From being engulfed by accolades only a few years ago, the plummet from dizzying heights is astonishing, perhaps compounded by India’s constant defeats ever since that magical night in the April of 2011. From being touted as one of India’s greatest openers to grace the strip, Sehwag almost went unsold at the seventh edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

It’s a format he’s tailor-made for, yet Sehwag was bagged in the last second, literally, by Kings XI Punjab, for a price surprisingly lower than that of some of the uncapped players. A few days prior to the auction, Sehwag, through a tweet, expressed his desire to represent Delhi Daredevils, his side for the previous six editions. It was hard to imagine him in another franchise’s flannels, too. However, one could sense an alternate ending. Sehwag’s form had plunged to such depths that Delhi chose not to use their ‘right to match’ card. Importantly, Sehwag understood.

“I am okay with that because that decision on Sehwag was a professional one and not personal. Yes, I am disappointed a little bit because you know I played six years for Delhi Daredevils. I became an icon player. But things happened and things change,” he told ESPNCricinfo.

Things did change, and drastically too. If his epochal innings of 219 is discounted, Sehwag averages 21 in One-Day Internationals since the 2011 World Cup. Indians are known to play few Twenty20 Internationals in comparison to the rest of the member-nations, yet Sehwag has featured in a fraction of those, understandably.

In five games he averages a meagre 16. Sent to the drawing board, he could muster 234 runs in 13 innings, averaging 19.50, during the Ranji Trophy. The selectors, who’ve now thankfully moved on from picking a squad in the descending order of reputation, were helpless even if they were inclined to rope him in.

For the most classic of players, every trough is followed by a crest. Sehwag’s splendour needs no evidence, for dig up the archives and you’ll find a plethora of that. He’s now been given a reprieve through the IPL, and it’s one of the best tools in his disposal to carve his way back into the national setup. The inception of Sehwag International School has perhaps checked off one of the most important entries in his bucket list. It has given him something to look forward to post-retirement. “What after cricket?” is an overwhelming question that eats away at most professional players, and Sehwag will be glad he’s got this out of the way.

The fact that he’s no longer India’s first choice as an opener, and that he was nearly unsold during the recent IPL auction are two other key points here. While they bring with them a sense of disappointment, it can also be a blessing in disguise. At this juncture, there is no hope for Sehwag. He’s not out there to impress any of the selectors. At 35, Sehwag knows his chances are limited. He’s not been named the captain of Kings XI Punjab, either, primarily because his (and the franchise’s) intention is to have few things on his plate.

This leaves him with the only option of wielding a willow and, with few things to worry both on and off the field, if he does manage to do so effectively, it could make him a ravishing prospect again. “I’ve got nothing to lose” is a dangerous place to be in. It can remake or break a career. But with Sehwag, you’ve got to back the possibility of the former happening.

Moreover, there are at least two to three in the current Indian limited-overs squad who’ve forged their way through enthralling performances in the IPL alone. There’s no reason it should be any different for this once enchanting opener. “It’s time to play for Virender Sehwag,” he said. One hopes he does, for all those magnificent moments he’s given many a spectator around the world. He deserves as big a send-off as the aura he once possessed. Alas, the script is in his hands alone.