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Loading ...Or to sum it up another way he cherry picks statistics like strike rate while ignoring a host of little things like batting average and performance away from home to back up his outlandish claim.
Sehwag the new Bradman?
By Will 2 months ago Add your comment below
A slightly sensationalistic headline for Ian Chappell’s latest column at Cricinfo, but he has statistics to back up the outlandish claim:
Sehwag has often said he doesn’t think too much when he’s batting. A wise man. After years of speculation about what, apart from his enormous skill, made Sir Donald Bradman so great, I’ve come to the conclusion that a crucial attribute was his ability to bat with an uncluttered mind. That’s not all Sehwag has in common with Bradman. They are the only batsmen to surpass 290 three times in Test cricket. They also comfortably have the best strike rate among the high scorers of their generation. This leads to an interesting thought on batsmanship: should greater consideration be given to stroke production rather than technique in moulding young batsmen? After all, efficient run-scoring is not just a statistical exercise, it’s the first rung on the climb to victory
Tags: don-bradman, ian-chappell, virender-sehwag |
10 Responses to “Sehwag the new Bradman?”
January 4th, 2010 at 12.02 am
January 4th, 2010 at 7.06 am
FYI, Sehwag has an away average of 49.
January 4th, 2010 at 8.37 am
39 in England, 26 in south Africa. Oz and West Indies he’s back on form but for me at least it suggests he’s never adapted to certain conditions.
Which is slightly beside the point anyway. I think he’s the most exciting player in the world at the moment. Trying to stretch that into comparisons with Bradman on the basis of a deliberately limited comparison just struck me as stupid.
January 4th, 2010 at 11.07 am
He hasn’t played enough in England.He missed the last tour.Karthik was picked there.Anti-Sehwag & Anti-Delhi politics with Mumbai based Vengsarkar at its forefront was responsible for Viru’s absence.Next time he tour pomland he gets at least 2 centuries with a double.
The South Africa average is because ,again,of India’s last tour there where pollock decimated india.Noone got any runs,so you can’t blame Sehwag alone.They all sucked then.Viru’s debut 100 was on a seaming track in South Africa.
January 4th, 2010 at 11.08 am
Sehwagology,anyone??
January 4th, 2010 at 12.27 pm
Sunny, if you compared Sehwag to nearly any other player I’d have a lot more sympathy for your points. But Bradman averaged over 100 his first time out the gate in the UK so all it does here is highlight another deficiency.
Plus I think the great and powerful sehwag averaged in the twenties in his one tour of new zealand as well.
That seem like a pattern to anyone else?
January 4th, 2010 at 3.19 pm
Also, he’s not dead.
Seriously, he’s not even retired. He’s 31, and all things being equal might have a few good years left in him. Or a few terrible ones, but we just don’t know yet, do we?
I think Bradman comparisons should be banned until any player has been retired for *at least* 10 years, and preferably until they’re actually dead and buried themselves.
Footnote: did Bradman get compared to anyone? And if so, at what point/s in his career??
January 4th, 2010 at 4.33 pm
I’d assume Bradman must have been compared to WG Grace and Jack Hobbs who were the two legendary Batsman before he came along.
The only real contempory he had that I know about was Wally Hammond. The first test series with England Bradman played in saw Hammond score 900 runs. The series after that Bradman himself got close to 1000 so their must have been comparisons between them.
They both still have first and second place records for most runs scored in a series.
January 4th, 2010 at 11.39 pm
I think Bradman was compared with Victor Trumper as well- and not always favourably!
But I don’t think anyone can be compared with Bradman today, for one simple reason. Bradman averaged 99.94, while Hammond, Hobbs, Hutton and Headley averaged in the 56-60 range. Sehwag averages about 50, and plenty of his contemporaries have similar or even better averages (Smith, Pietersen, Kallis, Ponting, Yousuf, Younis, and not to mention Tendulkar and Dravid). So Sehwag doesn’t stand heads and shoulders over his contemporaries like Bradman did.
January 7th, 2010 at 4.57 pm
Yeah I disagree with the bradman comparison.Unfair to compare guys of different generations.
But Chappel’s aussie.First thing that comes to their mind when you talk batting is Bradman.Just like its Tendulkar for Indians.
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