Virender Sehwag, Mishra Could be the Boost that India Need

By Sumit Srivastava

After two crushing defeats and the number one ranking at stake, India has really been looking for some magic to turn around and certainly Virender Sehwag can be that magic to change the Indian fortunes in England.

Virender Sehwag

A formidable opening pair is the one thing that all the great teams of past had. The same is the case with the Indian side with Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir at the top and batting superbly together.

How important this pair is for India, it was evident right from the West Indies itself a couple of months back when the two were unavailable. In the whole series in the West Indies and in the first two Tests against England, India struggled to get the early momentum which put some extra pressure on the middle order and India could not pile up the runs on the score board that they are used to do on route to becoming the no.1 Test team.

With the return of the opening pair of Sehwag and Gambhir, the opening gate of defence should get stronger and if they are able to give the starts that they quite often do, most of the Indian problems would be sorted out.

With the absence of Zaheer Khan who has been the main weapon for India in all the conditions the onus was on Harbhajan Singh to play the role of the strike bowler and give crucial scalps for the side. But his form has been a big worry for India as he has been just a tame shadow of himself for quite some time now.

The loop is missing, the drift and spin have lost somewhere and the turn has almost vanished from Harbhajan’s bowling. All these things had played a very critical role in most of his 400 plus test wickets and earned him the tag of Turbanator and suddenly all these have gone missing from his armour.

The line also has not been very good for an off spinner. Either he has been starting off from middle and ending up around leg stump or he has been bowling too short and that is the reason that he has given many runs in the point and square leg area.

He should take a leaf out of his Swan’s book who has bowled wonderfully to the best batsmen of spin in the world. Like a classy off spinner, Swan is not afraid of tossing the ball up and making the batsmen drive and looking for the gap between bad and pad and this is exactly what Harbhajan needs to do is well.

The injury to Harbhajan Singh gives a chance to Amit Mishra to perform against the English who are known to have problems against the leg spinners and cement his place. This can be a blessing in disguise for Mishra as well as for the Indian side which desperately needs a spinner to check the opposition and the leg spinner can be that answer.