A different India without Sehwag
All the talk heading into the second Test at Trent Bridge has been about the impact of India losing Zaheer Khan, but another man’s absence looms just as large, especially if Gautam Gambhir fails to recover from his elbow injury in time
Tariq Engineer
25-Feb-2013
All the talk heading into the second Test at Trent Bridge has been about the impact of India losing Zaheer Khan, but another man’s absence looms just as large, especially if Gautam Gambhir fails to recover from his elbow injury in time. In the Times of India, Shashank Shekhar explains the significance of Virender Sehwag’s absence.
What puts Sehwag in a different league among Test batsmen is his sensational strike rate of 81.91, which along with his average (53.43) makes for a telling combination. His post-January 2008 (his comeback month) stats are even more striking - 3,539 runs at 58.98 and a strike rate of 90.55! While the other top Indian batsmen compare favourably with Sehwag as far as averages are concerned for the same period (January 2008-present) except Rahul Dravid, their strike rates simply pale in comparison..
Meanwhile in the Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine asks whether MS Dhoni has lost his Midas touch after the gambles he took in the Lord's Test failed to come good.
The dictum that luck favours the brave is an oft repeated cliché, but in Dhoni's case it has almost always proved true, be it the T20 World Cup final or the ODI World Cup. In the final at Mumbai, he made a tactical move of which he himself was the originator as well as the executioner. Failure here was no option since the stakes were too high. Dhoni, like many times in the past, dared destiny and conquered it.
Tariq Engineer is a former senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo