Sehwag is known for his hard-hitting and dominating the opposition’s bowling attack with his rich stroke-play, easing pressure on his teammates in the process.
“He has such a damaging effect at the top of the order and we have spoken about that,” said Nielsen. “The individual players have plans on how to counter his aggressive style of play. It makes it so much easier for Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman if they are batting on the back of a whirlwind 90 or a hundred from Sehwag. He certainly goes a long way to setting up their innings.”
Sehwag, the only Indian to have hammered a Test triple-century, has scored 7,039 runs in 79 Tests with 21 hundreds. The Australian coach said India had the bowlers to press home the advantage given by the hard-hitting opener.
“Sehwag sets it up with the bat and the bowling unit works well as a group. Everybody talks a lot about their individual bowlers, but as a bowling group they are a consistent unit.
“They have played together for quite a while. Ishant Sharma burst onto the scene when he played against Australia at home. Zaheer Khan has become the leader of the attack, and Harbhajan Singh has more than 350 Test wickets.”
Meanwhile, Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Suresh Raina joined the Test squad yesterday after completing their Champions League Twenty20 engagements for Chennai Super Kings in South Africa. Australian pacer Doug Bollinger and batsman Mike Hussey also joined their squad after CSK’s title triumph.
The first Test between the two sides start in Mohali tomorrow.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 30th, 2010.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ