Not Worried About My Form: Sehwag

VISAKHAPATNAM: Virender Sehwag is a no-nonsense guy. His approach to batting is quite simple and uncomplicated. There are no frills attached to it.

There is only one way he knows to bat and that is to whack the ball and send it to the fence. The ball is meant to be hit, is his simple batting mantra.

The endearing fact of the Nawab of Najafgarh is that if it comes off it's good, if it doesn't it doesn't matter at all. On Friday, the Delhi batsman was not at his fluent best as he struggled to time the ball. He also failed to capitalise on the Windies' largesse, who let him off twice. He managed to make 26 but was far from impressive.

Sehwag, however, was unfazed by it all. "I am not thinking too much of my own form. My batting is natural and am not unduly worried about the lack of runs. I was hitting the ball well today too. It may not have been a fluent innings as I got a couple of edges and was dropped twice. But that doesn't bother me," he said dismissively.

"Ahmedabad will be a different venue and conditions too will be different. It will be an altogether different game there and let's see what happens."

If the stand-in skipper is not bothered about his form, he doesn't seem worried about his teammates' form too. Sehwag was not willing to read too much into Parthiv Patel's lack of runs of late.

"We are not too worried about Parthiv's form. It is difficult for someone to field for 50 overs and then to come out and bat. The legs will be tired etc, but he has come to terms with it. He has to learn to be consistent and I am sure he is working hard on his game. He is a young lad and has been improving over the years. I am confident he will come out of this phase," he said. Those words will undoubtedly be music to the wicketkeeper's ears.

With the focus switching over to the tour Down Under, Sehwag feels that the players will find a way to handle the challenges out there.

"It is important for all the players to get into some form ahead of the tour to Australia. It will be a challenging series but I am sure the players will work things out for themselves. They will learn how to handle pressure by working harder and getting used to the conditions in Australia."

Talking about the second ODI against the West Indies which the hosts won by five wickets, Sehwag said: "I am pretty happy with our performance in the series thus far. The batsmen came good and the bowlers, as usual, did well."

The skipper was all praise for Virat Kohli, who notched up his second consecutive century (117) at the Dr YSR Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA stadium.

Virat's feet are on the ground

Virat Kohli intends to make hay till the sun shines. "I know you can't continue in good form for ever. Therefore I want this good form to be extended as much as possible because when never know when you hit a bad patch," Kohli said.

"It's the worst thing that a batsman has to go though. Suddenly, there will be a five-match series and a few low scores would make things difficult for you," he said.