Virender Sehwag is usually a blunt customer in press conferences, but even by his standard the Delhiite’s assessment of India’s situation after the fourth day of the third Test here was quite brutal. “Only God can help us.”
But looking at the way Indians batted in the post-lunch session, it’s quite hard to think that even God will be that merciful. Then Sehwag returned to the realm of mortals to explain the catastrophe, losing six wickets for 59 runs.
“We are very much disappointed because wicket is not that bad that we lose six wickets in one session. Key is to show patience and we didn’t do it. It’s not turning square. We are still fighting, and, hopefully, something happens tomorrow and we can save the match,” said Sehwag.
Until Sehwag was there in the middle, India were coasting along. But once Swann castled him, there was absolute pandemonium -- once again asserting the value Sehwag and his longevity in the middle. The right-hander, however, wasn’t ready to accept that there was any over dependence on him.
“Our team is a very good team. We have six batsmen who are capable of scoring hundreds and double hundreds. It’s not that they are depending on me,” he said. But there was hardly any evidence of that in the Mumbai Test and both the innings of the on-going Eden Test, collapsing against some high quality spin and pace. There was a way to score runs here as showed by Ashwin and a couple of tailenders.
So, how embarrassing it’s for the frontline batsmen to watch the late order milking a few runs?
“It’s not an embarrassment. He is also a part of our team. He is a good player, and knows how to score runs, and and how to survive. My batting style is different, and others are different, and Ashwin’s is different. If you apply yourself on that wicket, it’s not difficult to score runs,” Sehwag added. Sadly, none of the Indians managed that.
There were high expectations on Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh coming into this series, especially after a good run respectively in one-dayers and domestic cricket. But their batting was quite a sobering experience, failing to tackle spin and pace.
However, Sehwag, expectedly, defended the duo. “Yuvraj has played 40 Tests, Kohli has played some 11, and he has been playing international cricket for two-three years. He got that ICC Cricketer of the Year and the BCCI award. He is mature enough. It’s (the middle order) not new and young. But just they are playing Test cricket after long -- particularly Yuvi is playing after a long time.”
Then he urged the media not to jump into early judgments in the case of the likes of Pujara and Kohli, and anoint them as the man-to-man replacement for Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman.
“When Pujara scored runs, double hundred and hundred, you guys only said we have found a replacement for Dravid. You didn’t wait for a couple of matches. Now, you are saying that because Dravid and Laxman are not there we are losing.
“It is a transition period for us, so you have to give time to the youngsters. In this series we haven’t put runs on the board, especially in the last two games. The moment we put up the runs, 500-plus, it’s a different ball game. We will bounce back, and we will score runs,” he stressed.
These are certainly times we need a bit of optimism.