Never was so much owed by so many to so few

These words of Churchill describes perfectly how much of India's victory,enormous though it was depended on the two openers. Sehwag of course went there and as he said after the match enjoyed it but Gambhir was part of the partnership on which the Indian team built its attack.

There have been many instances when a lone ranger stands amongst the ruins like Laxman at Sydney on the tour of Australia in 2000.But when we think of great indian wins there have been two of record breaking levels. In 1976, at Port of spain Gavaskar and Viswanath both scored centuries and in Kolkata in 2001, Dravid played a stellar role with Laxman.And in 1976 there was that longish 85 from Mohinder Amarnath and in 2001 there was Harbhajan and his wonderful bowling.

This time at Galle Indian bowling demonstrated a good team work with Harbhajan in the lead role and Sharma and Kumble and even Zaheer havingtheir moments but except Gambhir nobody even looked to be playing in the same match as Sehwag.

This series is now wide open.India has won without its famous batsmen scoring big.There is that stirring example from 1981 when a hopelessly out of form vishwanath walking in after India had lost two quick wickets batted as if from memory and scored a century in the first innings.Gavaskar and Chauhan batted well in the second innings and with a fine bowling performnace from Kapil, india managed to bowl out Australia for 83.And India never lost a test in which Vishwanath scored a century.

Some of our legends can irrespective of their form bring forth a sublime innings and put India in the right frame for the final battle against Australia with most of India's alltime best team still in action.

The Heir apparent

This is no pretender. His bat answers the critics and the doubting Thomases.He was looked at by many to succeed Ganguly.Things did not turn that way but there is no reason that Virender Sehwag who has been as crucial to India's test match wins this century just like Anil Kumble was in the last decade of the previous century should not be Kumble's successor.The great troika of Tendulkar,Ganguly and Dravid will no doubt resurrect themselves but for some time now it is clear that Sehwag and Laxman need reinforcements.
Reinforcements or not Sehwag has become to Indian cricket what gavaskar was in the seventies and eighties.He carries the Indian batting on his shoulders.His one day form should not mislead us. He is right up there with Gavaskar and Tendulkar in the pantheon of test batsmen, averages notwithstanding. I hope dravid in the next two or three years proves me wrong by breaking into the league.
The market value of MSD will take a beating no doubt as Sehwag is a twenty overs specialist too and India should develop Parthiv patel in the A B De Villiers mode as a specialist test wicket keeper who can open and bat lower down.However in ODIs Sehwag would remain sporadically successful as the game does not challenge as much as the other two versions.A career with Dehi and India in whites and Delhi Dare Devils in coloured clothes will suit him just fine. ,