Sehwag - an all time great?

[Pratters]

The thought crossed my mind last week and I am thinking again. Is he an unrecognised great? His test record is fabulous.

 

[Richard]

Haha, not the first nor last time this question will be asked.

Think I've gone through my reasons why not - as of how things currently stand - a good few times before now, so won't do so again.

 

[Manee]

If this new 2008 incarnation of Sehwag can continue for a few more years, then there will be no question to be asked.

 

[Richard]

I don't, myself, feel Sehwag is playing any differently in Tests in 2008 than he ever did before. It's ODIs where - since midway through the calendar-year - he's completely reinvented himself.

Ironically, I thought the idea of Sehwag being an all-time ODI great was utterly implausible a few months back, far less likely than an all-time Test great. But now - for the first time since early-2003 - it once more seems perfectly possible.

 

[Precambrian]

Yip, I remember having seen a thread on these lines before. There is no doubt he will end up as one of the greatest openers, but not right now. He is not yet in the league of Tendulkar.

 

[aussie]

No doubt an Indian great right now, but as manee said a few more years of this & he will definately HAVE to considered an All-time great.

 

[NUFAN]

Will be interesting to see when/if Sehwag gets picked in the all time draft comp currently being run. There is 13 or 14 of us so 26+ openers, think it's fair to say he'll be picked.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Getting there. Opening the batting with Sunny in the AT Indian XI?

Staggering to think he was dropped for the 07 tour up here.

 

[fredfertang]

Nah - poor man's Ollie Milburn

 

[Manee]

The question begs to be asked, was it right to recall him for the Australia Test series?

 

[Richard]

Getting there. Opening the batting with Sunny in the AT Indian XI?

Staggering to think he was dropped for the 07 tour up here.

Not really. He completely deserved the axe - almost all Indian posters were agreed on that - and it benefited India greatly (and quite possibly him - Anderson and Sidebottom would almost certainly have eaten him alive and that might just have been the end of his career) that he got it.

He didn't deserve his recall either, but he was good (and, in the short-term, lucky, obviously) enough to justify the undeserved recall he got and since 2008 has gone from strength to strength.

And I'd still say that there's precisely zero doubt about him being a patch on Vijay Merchant, if you know your stuff.

 

[Nutter]

He's certainly one of the modern day greats, definitely not one of the all-time greats though.

 

[Uppercut]

He didn't deserve his recall either, but he was good (and, in the short-term, lucky, obviously) enough to justify the undeserved recall he got and since 2008 has gone from strength to strength.

Nah, don't agree with that. Dravid and Jaffer were painful at the top of the order and could barely get the ball off the cut strip. Sehwag had been very successful against Australia before and gave them much-needed initiative at the top. Events since have obviously proved the recall to be an excellent decision, but even at the time it was hardly devoid of logic.

 

[Ikki]

Yeah, certainly an Indian great. And if he continues why not, as an all-time great in the greater meaning of the term.

 

[morgieb]

Oh hell ****ing no. Yes, he's an Indian, and a modern, but not all-time.

 

[Richard]

Nah, don't agree with that. Dravid and Jaffer were painful at the top of the order and could barely get the ball off the cut strip. Sehwag had been very successful against Australia before and gave them much-needed initiative at the top. Events since have obviously proved the recall to be an excellent decision, but even at the time it was hardly devoid of logic.

He shouldn't even have been in the squad. No-one complained much when he was omitted from the probables (well, except Ian "what happened on the last tour of Australia is all that matters" Chappell).

When the outcome of the opening two Tests of that series happened, him being picked for the last two was fair enough. But there were more appropriate picks for the squad.

 

[Pratters]

When the outcome of the opening two Tests of that series happened, him being picked for the last two was fair enough. But there were more appropriate picks for the squad.

There is a case that he shouldn't have been picked for the squad. I for one wanted Chopra in the squad ahead of Sehwag given the current form in the Australian series squad. However, the more important thing is that he shouldn't have been dropped from the test squad in the first place.

 

[Precambrian]

Yeah bit of OTT Sehwag love all around. He is a gifted and perhaps the best opener we had since Gav, but there was a time when he was really struggling, and the drop made him only more determined to comeback, and how.

 

[Pratters]

Yeah bit of OTT Sehwag love all around. He is a gifted and perhaps the best opener we had since Gav, but there was a time when he was really struggling, and the drop made him only more determined to comeback, and how.

You misunderstand me. He was struggling in ODIs but not in Tests.

 

[Richard]

There is a case that he shouldn't have been picked for the squad. I for one wanted Chopra in the squad ahead of Sehwag given the current form in the Australian series squad. However, the more important thing is that he shouldn't have been dropped from the test squad in the first place.

I thought you were one of those in favour?

I certainly think he should've been dropped myself. He'd been found-out - at last - in South Africa and had he toured England I, as I mentioned above, think Sidebottom and Anderson would've cut him to shreds, the way they bowled that series. The ball really swung in England for the first time in years, and in both directions as well.

Had that happened, it might just've been the end of Sehwag's career. Unless he got another chance in the middle-order.