Virender Sehwag put himself in line for a Test recall after more than 12 months in the wilderness with an innings of sheer brilliance at the Manuka Oval on a sparkling Saturday.

Admittedly, the pitch was placid, the bowling hardly the sort to give any batsman worth his salt a sleepless night.
Even so, the quality of his stroke-making was all too obvious as the 29-year-old shed a string of poor scores in emphatic fashion.

At once the one-man panzer division and the screaming, scorching Ferrari, Sehwag amalgamated brute force and impeccable timing to a nicety, providing the think-tank with an additional option ahead of the third Test beginning in Perth on Wednesday. To round off the best day of three for the visitors, Dinesh Kaarthick too played himself back among the runs as the warm-up tie against an ACA Invitational XI ended in a predictable stalemate. Yuvraj Singh almost certainly played himself out of the Test squad with a sixth consecutive failure on tour, all but engaging Sehwag and Kaarthick in a straight fight for the sixth specialist batsman's spot.

India flexed their batting muscles after the home team declared at their overnight 292 for eight. Powered by Sehwag's 73-ball century and Kaarthick's 97 of two parts, they powered to 281 for four before applying the closure at the stroke of tea. Chris Rogers fell early in the Invitational XI's second innings as the hosts stumbled to 60 for three when the game was called off by mutual consent.

Tactical choice

Perhaps, Sehwag will eventually not play in Perth, but that will only be a tactical choice because he proved on Saturday that body and mind are both completely in sync. The listlessness of the attack notwithstanding, this was an innings of tremendous substance. Not even Sehwag, all gay abandon and carefreeness, could have been unaware of how crucial this day would be. His victory lay in shutting out the larger picture and focussing on the here and now as he treated a sparse gathering to an uninhibited display of stroke-production, and the Invitational XI bowlers to a hiding to nothing.

First signs

The first signs that this could be his day came off the first delivery he faced as he got his feet going, got behind the line of a short ball from Ash Perera, and punched it to point with authority and confidence. From there on, it only got better as he peppered the off-side boundary, primarily off the back foot with power-packed cuts and intelligent upper cuts, or with the odd creamed drive through the covers as the bowlers overcompensated for shortness in length.

Dropped on 16 at square-leg, and then on 92 at mid-on, Sehwag made the most of his good fortune, though he knew that the century would mean nothing statistically. Having taken the pacers apart, he treated persevering leggie Ryan Bulger with great disdain, toying with his offerings and racing along to a hundred that totally dominated the opening stand of 158 with Kaarthick.

The Tamil Nadu lad played it sensibly, sitting back as Sehwag cut loose though he could perhaps have handled his own hogging of the strike better with his partner in full cry. Once Sehwag was caught behind off Mark Higgs' left-arm spin, Kaarthick went into overdrive. With Wasim Jaffer for company, he picked off Bulger before bringing out the pull that has been his undoing several times in the past, including in the first innings. Instead of trying to roll his wrists and keep the ball down, he essayed the stroke with an almost vertical bat, getting the elevation required to comfortably clear mid-wicket more than once. Intelligent thinking, excellent execution.

There was no joy for Yuvaj. Under great pressure after his last five completed innings had brought him 19 runs, the left-hander lasted 12 deliveries. It took a special catch at cover by Jonathon Dean, diving full length to his right, to send Yuvraj back; it was also a full toss that, 99 times out of hundred, Yuvraj would so casually have put away. When it rains, it really does pour.