Cramped for room

The ball pitched short, reared up, and headed straight at the batsman, causing a hurried hop. Eyes left the ball and the bat, an ungainly face shield, popped the ball up to waiting palms. Virender Sehwag had fallen to a bouncer, again.

The failing has been always there. "There are chinks in the youngster's defences that can be sorted out by thinking bowlers," wrote Viv Richards during India's one-dayers against West Indies in 2002 after Sehwag fell to Vasbert Drakes's well-directed bouncer. The West Indians tasted some success against him throughout the series, digging a few into the ribs for Sehwag to push out weak swivel-pulls.

In 2003, I watched Sachin Tendulkar pit his wits against Sehwag in the Irani Trophy game at Chennai. Tendulkar, captaining Mumbai against Rest of India, placed a leg slip, a short leg, a square leg and a long leg and instructed Ajit Agarkar to operate round the wicket and pitch it short at Sehwag's ribs. Agarkar couldn't quite find his radar but when he did, Sehwag jumped up, thrust his bat out and popped up chances just short of the waiting men.

Interestingly, and therein lies the strength and weakness of his technique, he is not troubled with bouncers outside his body, on or outside off stump. His footwork, or the lack of it, is a key element of Sehwag's technique. His head is absolutely still and there is no feet movement till the ball has been delivered. Then he swiftly gauges the length of the ball. If it's short, he goes back; his back foot usually moves almost straight back as opposed to the conventional back-and-across. That leaves him beside the line of the ball - some batsmen prefer getting behind the line - and his position creates room for even when a ball is directed at the stumps. If it bounces, he just sways back, transferring his weight to his right foot, and uses his wrists and the bottom-handed grip for his dashing fierce upper-cuts and slashes.

It was quite a sight. Even as the ball rose after pitching, Sehwag's backlift had reached its apogee and his right foot made a slight backward movement. The flashing blade came down smoothly, and met the ball flush in the middle. All the while, his head was still. Absolutely still.

Greg Chappell credits Sehwag's brilliance to an uncluttered mind and its product - an uncomplicated technique. Although he modelled his game on Tendulkar, his game depends more on hand-eye coordination. The backlift is higher; there is more of the wrist-cock which results in high bat speed that brings it down in a flurry and imparts momentum to the ball at the point of contact. The judicious movement of the feet, allied of course to his quick eye, allows him even to hit the good-length balls on the up.

Unlike Tendulkar, Sehwag doesn't reach out towards the ball with a huge forward stride. Rather, he waits on the crease, with a little movement back. Since he never gets his left foot across, his downwards backswing comes down unimpeded and smoothly like a golf swing. This generates tremendous bat speed and transfers furious kinetic energy to the ball. Uncluttered footwork also helps him negotiate the reverse swing adeptly. The front foot doesn't comes across, so he is seldom troubled by the late inswing. Rather, he waits for the swing before launching into his fluent drives.

Sehwag's troubles start when the projectile rears straight at him; he is cramped for room. As Mike Atherton noted, "batsmen with a strong bottom-handed grip will struggle against bounce." Sehwag prefers to be beside the line and work the ball towards off. When the bouncer darts into his body, he is cramped and a weak shot results. He has, however, worked on it with Ian Fraser. Although he still doesn't possess a conventional pull, his swivel shots are not as weak as they once were, and he manages to use his wrists to get the ball down, even if the execution is a bit ungainly.

The English bowlers have troubled him this series, and it should be fascinating to watch Sehwag attempt to tackle this in the future. Many times your strengths can be your weakness and Sehwag obviously knows this. How he copes with the irritants should make for compulsive watching.