As Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag shape up to form a consistent, positive, opening pair, the left-right combo and the blend of aggression and moderation in place, terrorism, for Kevin Pietersen atleast, might’ve just added a new meaning. And you can’t blame him: when you declare with 350+ on the board and the opposition score 100-0 in one session itself, you really ought to be scared.

I had earlier blogged about the Sehwag factor following his triple-ton earlier this year on a similar wicket that refused to deteriorate on Day 5. And what a paradise it was for the batsman, as flat as Ms. Sherawat isn’t. And not much of turn for the spinners: perhaps the only turn you could attribute to Monty Panesar was his reaction as he turned to see the bail sail into the crowd off a certain full-toss that was begging to be hit anyway. Getting bad balls is one thing: putting them away is another.

In spite of the centuries, it was only fitting that Sehwag won the Man-of-the-Match award. Pietersen has had a miserable tour, and can’t be blamed for being snappy, but even the English captain couldn’t help but applaud the aggression shown by the Indian opener.

It might be perhaps relevant to quote a number of people who had previous written Sehwag off, and for good reason too. He definitely lacked technique. Vulnerable against the short delivery (although, of late, many-a-tall-bowler have bowled fast and short only to find a sphere of leather deposited over third man). Lack of footwork, and on a skiddy pitch, and leg-before’s a beckoning. Yet, in spite of these flaws, Sehwag continues to perform in all forms of the game. Like all great batsmen of our times, Sehwag too will go through a bad phase, what they call being out-of-form. And then, it isn’t his technique that will see him bounce back: nope. Rest assured that when he gets back amongst the runs, he’ll do it in a way only he can: thump the ball to the fence.

Still, Sehwag is by no means a ‘fluke’ player. No, that would be the Afridis of our generation, reminiscent of a suicide-bombing squad that bombs away before self-destructing. Sehwag, on the contrary, has the backfoot punches, the straight drives, the whallops over midwicket, the cover drives and even the cheeky uppercut over the slips or the leg glance.

However, Sehwag’s ability will really be tested on skiddy, fast wickets. And it would be important for him to retain this similar approach and attitude towards getting runs. For now he can bask in the glory of another key innings, one that laid the foundations of a memorable Test victory.

In the current light of things, Sehwag isn’t too far away from the kind of player that MS Dhoni is. Both are similar in attitude: a no-nonsense approach, and while Sehwag can get carried away (let’s blame it on his talent for now), Dhoni has evolved into a master tactician, a strategist of sorts, who doesn’t go by the book but a mixture of advice, hunches and some very, very good luck. It might be safe to say that, as long as Dhoni is at the helm of affairs, Sehwag and his attitude will thrive, and terrorise the opposition.

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