Australia's not-so secret plans for Virender Sehwag

If test matches were won by what was said off the field then Australia would already be returning home with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Ricky Ponting and his men have been even more vocal than usual since they arrived in India and most of their words have been reserved for Virender Sehwag.

It would seem that the Australians believe that Sehwag has a weakness against the short ball and have decided that rather than keeping their plans for the two test 'series' up their sleeves, they are going to talk ad infinitum about their strategy to rough up the explosive Indian opener.

Mitchell Johnson, speaking without his Mother in attendance feels that "Sehwag is someone we can bowl a lot of short balls to. I don't think he's too confident with the short ball early."

Johnson was obviously taking his cue from his captain judging by Ponting's assertion that "Sehwag's dangerous. Our bowlers will be bowling their fair share of short balls at him. Young bowlers like Johnson are looking forward to unsettling him at the top of the order."

Even that medium pace trundler Shane Watson got in on the act by explaining in rather peculiar English that "There are a few things we know we can make the most of with, hopefully, some of the Indian batsmen. I think with a few guys it doesn't necessarily have to be raw pace, but getting a few short balls up a few of their top-order batsmen is going to be really important, to set the tone for our bowling side."

By making their strategy crystal clear, it would seem that Australia are trying to intimidate Sehwag before the series even starts. In many ways this is a brave but probably foolhardy move. The two tests will be played in Mohali and Bangalore not Brisbane and Perth, and Sehwag's recent form stacks the odds even more in his favour. In his last ten tests, Sehwag has hit 1282 runs at a whopping 85.46 with six centuries and four fifties. And he has done all that at an unbelievable strike rate of 97.34.

So, it would seem that the damage is more likely to be inflicted on Johnson, Watson and the other Australian bowlers than the imperious Sehwag. It should be fascinating to watch whatever the outcome.

Where next?

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Comments

[Howe_zat]

Laughable. The only Aussie with a really potent bouncer right now is Siddle and he likely won't play. I'd like to see Watson bowling short 78mph trundlers and see how that works. The least the Aussies can do is play to their strengths.

[The Coder]

"Mitchell Johnson, speaking without his Mother in attendance"
--- Ha ha that got me going!!!

[MartDawg]

I hope to an almost immeasurable degree that the mighty Sehwag takes them to the cleaners. Ideally rapid centuries made up entirely of blistering pull shots that he had to wait for off the utterly detestable Shane Watson.

[The Reverse Sweep]

Ha ha Martdawg - obviously a fellow Twatto hater!