Sehwag does the hard yards for net gains

Over the past few days, while attention has been focused on Ganguly's return, India's bowling attack and the arrival of the chairman of selectors, one man has been doing time at the nets. With his return to form crucial to any chances India have of succeeding in the three Tests ahead, Virender Sehwag is being helped by coach Greg Chappell and his assistant Ian Frazer, who have set up the bowling machine to the lengths and lines that have troubled him of late. There have also been throw-downs that simulate the deliveries that he's likely to get from the likes of Pollock (just short of a length on off stump), Ntini (angling in from short of length) and Steyn (most likely fast and straight).

It's all in an attempt to take Sehwag back to his glory days.

On Boxing Day in 2003, Sehwag played an innings that will linger long in the memory of anyone privileged enough to have watched it. Comparatively subdued in the opening session, when he was hit on the helmet, he opened out after lunch with a stunning array of shots that scorched the MCG turf, and silenced the most partisan fans in Bay 13. By the time the carnage ended, with a slog-sweep into the outfield, he had careered to 195 and set up a dominant position that India subsequently squandered.

Three years on, and still only 28, you would have expected him to be at his peak, pushing the likes of Ricky Ponting for the badge of honour that goes with being the world's best batsman. Instead, his career appears to be on the slide, with woeful one-day performances competing for space with patchy Test displays over the past 12 months.

Before he went into the Test series against Sri Lanka at home last December, Sehwag's record was of the eye-popping kind - with 10 centuries and an average of 55.32 from 37 Tests. In 12 Tests since, he has averaged 42.21, with two huge scores (254 at Lahore and 180 in St. Lucia) obscuring a depressing run of low scores. After the Lahore heroics, he didn't go past double-figures in Pakistan, and the English bowlers troubled him consistently except for a second-innings 76 at Mohali.

The technical shortcomings that he had been able to play around so convincingly for so long suddenly appeared to be wearing him down. Bowlers targetted him with short balls directed at the body, denying him room to flail away outside off stump, and he was repeatedly undone by full deliveries that darted back into him. Greg Chappell said at the time that it would be a good test of his mental fortitude, one that would show the world whether Sehwag had the quality and strength of will to emerge stronger from the tribulations.

So far, he has fallen short, continuing to be set up in similar fashion by bowlers who have zoomed in on his relative lack of foot movement. That wasn't an Achilles Heel in the past, but somewhere along the way, Sehwag's uncluttered approach to the game began to be tinged with doubt.

It was primarily with a view to getting him back on track that the team management enlisted the services of Rudy Webster while they were in the West Indies. Webster had further sessions with Sehwag during the Champions Trophy, and his advice focused on going back to basics. Rather than visualise a multitude of options before the ball was bowled, Sehwag was asked to expect three basic types of deliveries - the full one, the short one, and that pitched on a good length.

The results though have been slow in coming, with only a determined 65 against Australia at the Champions Trophy catching the eye. And as the runs have dried up, so the murmurs have grown about poor preparation, both physical and mental.

He hasn't helped his cause with a poor attitude. To be at the press conference after the Port Elizabeth game, where he led the side, was to witness a man in denial. Having done nothing of note all series, he spoke brusquely of how there was nothing wrong with his batting, and how he only needed more time in the middle.

Even as his one-day place hangs by the proverbial thread, there's little doubt that Sehwag will be given more rope in the Test arena where he has been second only to Dravid in recent times. Throughout his career, he has embarrassed the naysayers by performing in conditions where he was supposedly doomed to fail - scoring centuries at venues as diverse as Bloemfontein, Trent Bridge and the MCG. But failure in South Africa could see the reservoir of goodwill start to run dry.

In the ultimate analysis, he has to help himself, and rediscover the relaxed, free-stroking style that made him one of the few batsmen who could intimidate bowlers on a regular basis. An inability to ignite the innings against a formidable pace attack will mean that questions about his attitude and approach build up to a crescendo. And in the current climate of defeat, fear and doubt, the cacophony could become difficult to ignore.