Sehwag sings and swings

The song Koi karta hoga mera intezaar (some one will be waiting for me) fills the air on a humid afternoon. Virender Sehwag is the singer. That shouldn't raise eyebrows but Sehwag is singing while thumping the bowlers in the nets. Alongside him, Tendulkar asks Munaf Patel to move away from his position behind the bowler's arm. I park myself at a wicketkeeper's eye view, just behind the netting to watch the guru and shishya (disciple) go about their business.

The bat speed of Sehwag is mesmerizing. He places his bat just before the instep of the back foot, with bat facing first slip, and keeps still as the bowler releases. Then the furious activity begins. The feet move a little, just enough to maintain balance and get him going towards the ball but, more importantly, making room for his bat to come crashing down. The head remains still, absolutely still. And that wrist-cock gets the bat down in a marvellous blur. He is constantly trying to score runs off every ball. No dead-batting unless the ball is really a gem. If he can't hit it hard, he is trying to open the bat-face and run it into imagined gaps.

And he constantly teases the bowlers. "Patha nahi chal raha hai na, kidhar daaloon, kya karoon? (Struggling to find where to bowl, eh?), he asks one of the spinners. Both the bowler and the batsman laugh. Sehwag keeps watching Tendulkar bat, passing comments, “Shot Master! Wah ji Wah! (bravo).” He also pulls Tendulkar's leg now and then by praising the bowler who has got the better of him. Tendulkar simply laughs.

After hitting one straight back at Suresh Raina, Sehwag shouts, "Now I have to hit you. Tere ko Mendis & Murali thodi banney denge (I am not going to allow you to become a Mendis or a Murali.) The next Raina delivery is deposited to the long-on boundary with mischievous laughter.

It's all not fun, though. Sehwag asks bowlers what their field positions are and tries various shots and predicts how many runs each stroke will fetch. He also tells the bowler how well he is bowling or what is lacking. He focuses on his footwork, taking care that the trigger movement is not affecting the arc of the bat.

Tendulkar too seems to be having lots of fun. He punches Praveen Kumar on-the-up straight past him and asks, "Pakad leta usko?" (You would have stopped that?). The next ball, he reprises the shot with more punch and this time there is no need to ask that question.

Once he mistimes a short-of-length ball down the wicket and tells a curious Sehwag - who wonders why Tendulkar didn't whip it through midwicket - that he is trying something new with his back lift. So I crouch to watch as well. The top hand is limp, there is minimal back lift as the bat tilts into position, ready and waiting for the ball to arrive, before he thumps the ball hard, taking care to hit it straight past the bowler. There’s only a tiny arc of the bat but it imparts tremendous velocity to the ball at the moment of impact.

Sehwag, meanwhile, moves into the nets where Gary Kirsten is giving throw downs. The teasing continues. "Don't bowl there, mate!" Sehwag says after he plays a feisty square cut. "I don't want you to feel low in confidence before a game," replies Kirsten to which Sehwag laughs before turning serious. "Just try to bowl dot balls and as tight as possible. I will try to see how I can get them away for singles and twos." He punches one on the up and says, "Lovely! That is a Tendulkar shot."

And his guru has moved to the spin nets and is now trying various shots: paddle-sweeps, late-cuts, slog-sweeps, and even reverse-sweeps. Once, Tendulkar’s leg stump is pegged back by Ojha after he misses a jumping switch-hit. "It was in the slot yaar," says Tendulkar. Towards the end of the session, Tendulkar leans forward, bends his knees, and scoops a flighted delivery around off and middle over the slips. "Two runs," exclaims Tendulkar. "And that's enough for the day now. Let's go." Tendulkar and Sehwag walk out of the batting nets. The photographers too left, humming Koi Karta hoga ....