Virender Sehwag

[mcgillianaire]

Virender Sehwag hits over the top, India v Sri Lanka, 1st ODI, Rajkot, December 15, 2009.

The only specialist batsman with a 100+ strike rate in all forms of the international game in 2009:

108.98 in Tests,
136.59 in ODIs; and
195.83 in T20 Internationals.

Everybody knows the decline in quality of bowlers and spread of flat batting paradises has gotten worse with each year, but Sehwag's career illustrates either how much better a batsman he has become since the summer of 2008, or the increasing rate of decline in bowlers and pitches. Since June 2008 he has scored ODI runs at a strike rate of 132.21 (33 innings) compared to 97.22 (180 innings) before that. His average in this period has jumped from the 31.39 it was until 2008, to the 49.25 it has been since then. In a similar period in Tests, Sehwag's strike rate has jumped from the previously brisk 76.49 (96 innings) until July 2008, to the 97.28 (27 innings) it has been since then. His average has also improved from 51.75 before July 2008 to the 55.19 he's achieved since then. Well played sir!

Comments

[pappubahry.livejournal.com]

how much better a batsman he has become since the summer of 2008
He was really good in Tests before then as well, just didn't score at quite as freakish a pace. For a while it looked like he was getting carried away with the fast run-scoring stuff, but he hit that 290odd recently, so....

[mcgillianaire.livejournal.com]

I just wish he would bat in ODIs the way he does in Tests. Lately he's been getting a lot of quick 30s and 40s but not converting them. Whereas in Tests he would leave a few more deliveries, he tends to hit too many, esp uppishly past point and gully in the first 15 overs. The thing with Sehwag is that if he just hung around for an extra 10 overs or so, you're almost guaranteed a 300+ score if batting first or an easy chase for the batsmen who follow.