Virender Sehwag: a big technical flaw made up with great hand-eye?

[Cricketdude]

Dravid 300... hmmm.

 

[jkartik]

am talking about the highlights !

 

[angryangy]

Surprisingly, his lack of footwork and overall lack of technique has hampered him alot in ODI cricket, but he remains one of the most dominant test match openers to ever play for India. Almost like a reverse effect.

Textbook technique is about getting your head over the ball and playing straight, with a view to being protected against mistiming the ball and still being able to work the ball off the pads for runs. The trick to one day cricket is that good players often don't score many more boundaries than they would in an unlimited number of overs, instead they double the number of singles they pick up, so a nice technique is handy.

 

[Cricketdude]

I love seeing tailenders score runs.

 

[Paki007]

He hould not change his game i think he should continue play in the way like he does

 

[rahuldravidfan]

Thank God god for players like Sehwag, He brings people into the stadiums. I'd rather watch Sehwag bat than Dravid, despite the obvious gap in technical efficiency. Its like watching Brazil play football as compared to Italy. Attacking flair all the way.

Okay. I guess you're saying, its pretty similar to watching Johan van der Wath over Dillon du Preez, isn't it?

 

[sohum]

A few comments:

1. As everyone has said, Sehwag's technique isn't the best in the world. You are absolutely right that he has had success because of his impeccable hand-eye coordination, which means he needs to get all his runs in now while his body is in peak physical condition, because he's going to taper off later.

2. You have shown videos of all the balls he's gotten out being of a similar length. How about all the balls of that same length that he didn't get out? Or all the balls of that same length that he scored runs off of? Numbers like this make no sense without context. For example, if he faced 10000 balls in that area and got out 18 times then I'd take it. If he faced a 100 balls in that area and got out 18 times, then it would be a major flaw that needs to be targeted. I think the number is somewhere in the middle and has to do with many more factors, such as concentration, form, etc. I'd say something like Raina's ability to play the short ball is a much more accurate major technical flaw. He not only gets out, he looks uncomfortable continually against it.

3. How does this compare to other players? Do most players struggle with a good length delivery? Is that why it's called a "good" length delivery?

4. I think you definitely have a valid claim to say that he has a flaw, but I don't think you're the first to unveil it. I'm pretty sure that various team managements around the world have already figured this out and targeted it, with mixed results. Which supports my claim that it's not as deterministic as one may like to think. You can't just keep bowling it on that exact length since he's a smart enough batsman to adjust. To get him out, you still need to be a clever bowler--maybe mix up the deliveries and throw one in at that perfect length once in a while.

 

[Leggie]

TBH I think it's quite ironic how his favourite shot is the cut shot, yet he gets out playing it so often.

 

[Cricketman]

Get a ball going away, cramp him for room, and bowl at that length and you will get smashed for 50 off like 30, but always will have that chance. Sehwag is so good because he simply doesn't care where the ball is, if he thinks he can get a boundary he'll go for it.

 

[pcfan123]

Get a ball going away, cramp him for room, and bowl at that length and you will get smashed for 50 off like 30, but always will have that chance. Sehwag is so good because he simply doesn't care where the ball is, if he thinks he can get a boundary he'll go for it.

Spot on. Love these sorts of players.

 

[Insomniac]

I'm interested in seeing Sehwag against a bowling machine which can bowl the same ball over and over again at that "length"

That would give us the statistics Sohum is talking about as well. However, I think we should change the "all the balls he didn't get out to" to comparing the number of balls he gets out to / plays and misses / edges to the number of balls he plays well in that length.

Obviously, you can't get a wicket on every ball, so I think that would give us a more appropriate analysis of where he stands.

 

[sohum]

I'm interested in seeing Sehwag against a bowling machine which can bowl the same ball over and over again at that "length"

You think that never, in the many years of his international career that this weakness has been known publicly, that he has tried to iron it out by setting up a bowling machine to bowl a certain length to him? With Sachin as his mentor, I think that is highly, highly improbable.

 

[Paki007]

Sehwag is doing well so far in this series against aussies and i beleive he will deliever more runs in the matches to come

 

[Insomniac]

You think that never, in the many years of his international career that this weakness has been known publicly, that he has tried to iron it out by setting up a bowling machine to bowl a certain length to him? With Sachin as his mentor, I think that is highly, highly improbable.

Well, I haven't seen it with my own eyes

I'm sure it's happened, but we don't know whether he's played and missed at all of them, or gotten an edge, etc.

We don't know the results of that.