Sehwag follows successful model

Imitation is the sincerest form of battery for Indian opener Virender Sehwag.

As an aspiring young cricketer in his home city of Delhi, Sehwag used to stand in front of a television with bat in hand and mock the strokes of the great Sachin Tendulkar.

Comparisons between the two are inevitable due to similarly squat statures and the precise reproduction of forearm-rippling drives and whips off the hip.

They also share a thirst for big scores and their partnership at the head of India's one-day order is the most scintillating in world cricket, although Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden run it close.

Even identical twins have different character traits, however, and where Tendulkar is polished, Sehwag is rough.

Sadly for India, Tendulkar has been ruled out of the ICC Champions Trophy due to tennis elbow and India will look to Sehwag to help make up for his absence.

Sachin Tendulkar was a role model for Virender Sehwag

Sehwag, at 25, six years Tendulkar's junior, is a primal talent and therein lies his appeal. There is something wondrous in any rise to the big stage from a modest background.

And by the time he had scored his first international hundreds in both forms of the game - a 70-ball effort against New Zealand in a one-dayer and a Test debut ton, having walked to meet Tendulkar in the middle in Bloemfontein with the Indians 68 for four - there was much flap about him.

That gathered to a crescendo after his actions during the second Test against South Africa in Port Elizabeth, and those subsequently of match referee Mike Denness, who banned Sehwag for one match for excessive appealing, a move which threatened to split world cricket.

For once Sehwag was involved in a laborious and messy innings, but one not played by him as Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, defied the International Cricket Council by ignoring the imposed sanctions to play an unofficial Test against the South Africans.

In those bitter end days of November 2001, Sehwag lost his identity: he was no longer a man, he was an issue, a puppet in a political game.

That affair came to an end when Dalmiya, who initially backed the selection of Sehwag in the first Test squad to face England - a move which almost resulted in the collapse of the tour - reneged and pulled the batsman out of the party.

Such chaos is now expected with Sehwag at the crease, not in the stands, testament to his conviction to become a great player.

Sehwag celebrates another big score

He is not short on audacity, either, playing shots to balls which he should not and rarely being punished for doing so.

Quite to the contrary, it has paid handsomely. He has conjured up pivotal innings at the top of the order, none as significant as when at Multan earlier this year, he struck India's first-ever Test triple century, brought up in characteristic style with a six, an innings which laid the foundations for his country's first win on Pakistan soil.

His ruthless approach to batting means some, wrongly, have pigeon-holed him as a one-day blaster and makeshift opener.

True, he was not familiar to the role when elevated on the tour of England in 2002 but he responded with volume of runs and averages more than 50 in Tests.

This excitable as well as exciting cricketer is driven by self-belief - evident perhaps in his mix of sublime strokes and gruesome hoiks - and he recently claimed he was intent on registering the first double hundred in one-day internationals.

When in full gear, there would be enough time to achieve the feat given his exceptional strike rate of virtually a run a ball over his career, a standard not matched by any batsman who has averaged above 30 in the history of ODIs.

Combine his canny off-spin and safe hands to that kind of batting power and his value is truly appreciated.

For inspiration in the ICC Champions Trophy, in fact, he need only to look back two years, when his golden arm won India a famous victory in the previous tournament's semi-final.

South Africa were cruising to their victory target of 262 at 194 for one, when, in the 39th over, Sehwag dismissed Jonty Rhodes, and career-best figures of 3-25, following a stereotypical half-century, earnt a man-of-the-match award as India went on to the Colombo final.

Given his wont, carbon copies should not be discounted.