How about Sehwag in the middle order?

He has always talked about how he would like to bat lower down. Perhaps he should be granted that wish now 

The Indian selectors have done the right thing by including some senior stalwarts of Indian cricket in the India A team against West Indies A. I believe that when you drop players of the calibre of Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Zaheer Khan for poor form, you should also be keen to have them back when their form returns.

Dropping established senior players can have two effects. One: the player takes being dropped so much to heart that he never recovers from the jolt, and comes back a shadow of himself. Two: the player comes back with the vigour and intent of old, and the team ends up getting a few good seasons out of him.

Sehwag is an interesting case here. We have heard stories about Zaheer and Yuvraj Singh training hard to get back to peak fitness. Gambhir has gone to England, knowing that good performances there tend to make news in the Indian media, thus putting pressure on the selectors to pick him. But what is Sehwag doing? We haven't heard much about his activities. He seems to have chosen to keep a low profile.

This can be easily misinterpreted as him having no desire to return to Indian cricket, unlike his three colleagues, but we must be careful to not draw such conclusions, just as much as we ought not to be too carried away by Zaheer's and Yuvraj's "exotic" training stints in France. In both cases the judgement should be made on pure performance and fitness, based on the players' showings against West Indies A.

Sehwag has always done things differently. He has batted differently and so also prepared for matches differently. Maybe these unique methods happened to suit his general approach to life, but you cannot grudge a player an approach that has brought him success over 103 Tests in 12 years. He has had a hugely successful run and it is natural for him to keep trusting the process that brought him such incredible results.

I heard a story once of how VVS Laxman was having a knock on the morning of the last day of a Test series, though he had no role to play in the rest of the match. So also Sehwag, who asked VVS, "What's the point of this knock when your next match is two months later?" That's how Sehwag thinks. But while you can easily be fooled by his casual demeanour, for him to have played more than 100 Tests, there has to be a burning desire inside along with some god-gifted talent.

Obviously Sehwag fans are excited that he is back in the reckoning and are hoping that he clicks in the two India A games and comes back into the national team. Well, unfortunately for them, even if he gets two hundreds in those two games, the fact is that there is no place for Sehwag as an opener in this Indian team for a while. Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan have done so well as Test openers lately that the selectors will be obliged to give them a long run even if they fail. For Sehwag, who is 34, time is running out. At that age, one year in cricket is like a decade in another profession.

	Sehwag deserves another break at Test level only if he has done something about his fitness. He must look a lot more youthful in the field than he did against England

So that brings us to what Sehwag has been saying for many years, even when he was getting runs by the ton as an opener: "I would like to bat in the middle order." It's a desire that he seems to have held forever as a Test batsman. I have held the view that for a natural middle-order batsman, he served India amazingly well as an opener when they desperately needed one, so how about granting him that wish before his career finishes?

If for no other reason, at least because there is a chance of an opening for him in the middle order. With India strongly committing towards youth, an experienced batsman with the cheek needed for that position, where you often have to bat with tailenders towards the end of an innings, may be able to add some value to the team. Sehwag could play the kind of innings VVS did for India in Tests.

Of course there is a possibility that he may find batting down the order after 170 innings at the top not so easy after all, but you cannot deny that this is a tempting idea, one you would like to see tried before he is finally let go.

Having said all this, here is what's really important. When Sehwag eventually arrives on the public stage to play in those India A matches, he must look like a player a selector would want to give that opportunity to. It was embarrassing, to say the least, to see in last year's home series against England, balls edged by batsmen hit various parts of Sehwag's body before he could react at slip. That was a serious fitness issue and it worried me more than his passage of low scores. Sehwag deserves another break at Test level only if he has done something about his fitness. He must look a lot more youthful in the field than he did the last time.

The new Indian team under MS Dhoni is big on fitness. We have seen the difference that has made to India's performance lately. The days where only skill mattered in Indian cricket seem to have gone.

If Sehwag wants another crack, he must know times have changed and there can be room only for a fit Sehwag. 

Viru Sehwag came into international cricket as a No 6 batsman who was primarily a bowler as his natural flight drift in his off spinners would bear out. In fact his debut 100 came against the likes of Shaun Pollock,Hayward,Ntini and Kallis at Blomfontin.He was an instant hit as an opener though scoring a breathtaking 100 in Sri Lanka.Because of that and his many exploits at the top against the very best bowling, he remained there.The fact that he is a fearless Jat from Najafgarh added to his unmistakable aura as a great player.In spite of his primarily role now as a batsman he carried on being a very useful bowler as well. I feel he and Jaysuriya were similar in their cricketing abilities. Personally I feel he has another couple of years in the game at the highest level. Since he is a natural, I am willing to wager that the old Haryanvi has a few 100s still left in him. He is therefore worth a try at no 4 in Tests.The thing is when he fires he takes out whole bowling lineups. His USP.

What effect does average have on a batsman? Aaron Finch's contrasting figures in limited-overs

What effect does average have on a batsman?

Aaron Finch's contrasting figures in limited-overs and first-class cricket suggest he needs to bring his T20 mindset to the longer format

Having been asked many times what made Don Bradman so much better than the rest, I came to the conclusion it was his unique ability to replicate the more relaxed thought process of a net session while batting in the middle.

I reached this point of view after watching footage of Bradman bat to save the 1938 Trent Bridge Test. On that occasion, his footwork, normally positive and precise, looked like any other batsman's, as he shuffled in the crease, defending doggedly to stave off defeat. This drastic change in mindset was brought on because he was desperate to save a match in which Stan McCabe had played a memorable innings. As McCabe flayed the English attack, Bradman had famously said to the Australian players in the dressing room: "Come and look at this, you'll never see its like again."

Despite McCabe's brilliance, Australia was forced to follow on, and for once Bradman must have felt the external pressures that he was obviously able to eradicate from most of his other innings. Maybe he also experienced that same feeling in his final Test innings when he made a duck, needing only four runs for a career average of a hundred.

And that prompts the question: "What effect does batting average have on players?"

While he smote the English attack in scoring a record-breaking 156 off just 63 balls in the T20, Aaron Finch didn't seem to have a care in the world. Contrast that onslaught with his miserable last two Sheffield Shield seasons, where he has accumulated a minuscule 300 runs in 19 innings at the pedestrian strike rate of 58 runs per hundred balls.

In T20, your strike rate is the dominant statistic and the batting average takes a back seat. Most players are not so bothered about sacrificing their wicket in the format, because "that's the nature of the game".

However, in Test and first-class cricket very few players are willing to embrace equally the disparate ambitions of personal success and entertaining the crowd. After such a brutal display of hitting, it's natural to wonder: why can't Finch do better in longer forms of the game?

Finch is acknowledging that average counts by playing differently at first-class level to try to maintain a place in the side. Average is one of the measures selectors use to judge a batsman.

One commentator described Finch's T20 knock as a great innings. While there's no doubting the entertainment value, I would argue the lack of a contest - the bowlers appeared powerless to stop Finch - made it more of an exhibition of exceptional hitting.

Part of the enjoyment of a memorable innings is to witness a batsman overcome everything the bowlers produce in the contest. Consequently, the great Test knocks are readily remembered many years later. Bradman's 300 in a day at Headingley and McCabe's brilliance at Trent Bridge are still regarded as classic innings despite being played early last century. Brian Lara's record-breaking 400 and VVS Laxman's exquisite 281 at Eden Gardens were compiled years ago but are still recalled fondly.

Even some of the shorter-form knocks such as Sachin Tendulkar's epic 200 to become the first player to reach that level in an ODI will be talked about for years. Chris Gayle's blazing century in the inaugural World Twenty20 is still recalled as the first of its kind. And Garry Sobers' feat in achieving six sixes in a first-class over is still talked about in awe.

Players like Sobers, Tendulkar and Gayle have a huge advantage over Finch in a cricket fan's memory. Those three will long be revered as all-round batsmen because of their highly successful Test careers. Finch, on the other hand, unless he can find a way to play the longer form successfully, is in danger of being remembered simply as a bowler bully whose brutish hitting was discounted by shortened boundaries, enlarged bats and flat pitches.

In order to elevate his status as a batsman, perhaps Finch needs to take a leaf out of Bradman's book. He could try emulating the thought process in first-class cricket, not so much of his net sessions but of the T20 arena.