Warne impressed by Sehwag's batting prowess

Melbourne, Nov 30 (PTI) Indian opening batsman Virender
Sehwag was facing Pakistan's medium-fast bowler Abdul Razzaq,
who was reverse-swinging the ball, and the way the Indian
handled him is narrated in an interesting story in Australia's
legendary spinner Shane Warne's just released book.

"Sehwag came up to (his batting mate Jeremy) Snape and
said: 'We must lose this ball. I have a plan'. Next over he
whacked the ball clean out of the ground, forcing umpires to
pick another from the box that would obviously not reverse
straight away. To which Sehwag said: 'We are alright for one
hour.' Smart I say."

Sehwag and Snape were batting for English county
Leicestershire against Middlesex when Razzaq started reverse
swinging the ball in the way that the Pakistani bowlers do,
Warne wrote in his book 'Shane Warne's Century' and attributed
the "great story" to Snape, who told it to him during their
Indian Premier League (IPL) days.

The Australian believes Sehwag's style was unmatched in
the world and worked for him more than any other batsman with
the same approach.

"Sehwag is one of my favourite batsmen in world cricket
and one of my favourite personalities. This is a guy I would
pay to watch. Alright, he could get caught at third man to a
big slash or a top edge in the first or second over, but he
could just as easily bat for an hour in a way unmatched by
anybody else in the world.

"You can take pot luck with Sehwag, although the fact
that he averages more than 50 in Test cricket shows that his
style pays off for him more often than it does for most other
batsmen with the same approach," Warne wrote about the only
triple-centurion India has produced.

Warne, who led young underdogs Rajasthan Royals to the
title win in the inaugural IPL season, feels it was worth even
having an out-of-form Sehwag in the team.

"If I was his captain, I would look to pump him up at
every opportunity, reminding him that he is a match winner...
It is worth paying the price for the little mistakes for the
times when he absolutely destroys the opposition and wins you
a game," he said.

Despite some similarities, Warne felt it was unfair to
compare Sehwag with Sachin Tendulkar, whom the Delhi batsman
idolises.

"Comparisons with Sachin Tendulkar are unfair... Take him
(Tendulkar) for what he is. Take Sehwag for what he is as
well," he said and added "Their opening partnership in one-day
cricket was usually worth the admission fee alone."

A self pro-claimed Tendulkar fan, Warne has now
documented his feelings for the Indian, saying "Cricket has
been fortunate to have a wonderful player and a first-rate
ambassador, and to me he plays the game in right spirit...".

Warne also did not feel that being Tendulkar, it was
imperative for the batting maestro to score in every innings.

"He doesn't score runs every innings, of course, but he
hasn't suffered long troughs of poor form at any time in his
career... the papers would praise him but also blame him
sometimes if his innings did not win matches, as though he was
responsible for the rest of the side -- what a joke that is.

The spin wizard also felt that Tendulkar should not be
pestered to leave the game earlier than he wanted to, owing to
factors like form and age.

"All good things come to an end, and we should make sure
we really appreciate Tendulkar whilst he is around and playing
well. We will all miss him when he is not around anymore!"

Warne also praised "hot-headed" off-spinner Harbhajan
Singh as an "exceptional talent" but felt the Indian should
have got stringent punishment than he got for abusing Andrew
Symonds during the Sydney Test.

"He may not have a fan club in Australia after recent
incidents with Andrew Symonds, but he is still the kind of
exciting player spectators want to watch. I thought he handled
the situation in Australia last year pretty badly and should
have been punished more than he was," he said. PTI SKI
PMR