Why Virender Sehwag still moves India’s fans

I had first met Aryaveer Sehwag, Virender Sehwag's son, when he was one. A toddler, he was throwing his arms and legs in all directions in his baby cot when we were having coffee at Viru's Delhi home. Little did I know that when I would meet him next he would start tonking the plastic ball over the house walls and into the street. That's exactly what happened. This meeting happened a few days after the 2011 world cup victory and Viru was playing the role of a doting father showing off his son's skills. He actually said to me, 'dada throw and ball at him and see'. I did so to find Aryaveer just launch himself on the delivery and hit it straight out of the park aka Virender Sehwag. We had a good laugh.
The third time I met him was during the T-20 world cup in Sri Lanka. Viru was making a comeback into the team and the whole Sehwag family appeared tense. Tension mounted when Sehwag was benched for a match and then came back in the game against Pakistan. Aryaveer, sitting in the stands, could not control his emotions when his dad was taking on the likes of Shahid Afridi. After a well compiled 29, Sehwag held out in the deep and Aryaveer's reaction was worth seeing. He kept pleading to"hanumanji" with his hands folded in prayer that the fielder should drop the ball. His prayers weren't answered and his dad was out.

It came as no surprise to me when Virender Sehwag decided to dedicate his magical hundred against the Chennai Super Kings to son Aryaveer. To hear Viru say that his son was disappointed at his failures and was not happy going to school because his father was not doing well was the most candid interview I have heard in recent times. Cricketers often turn politically correct after scoring a ton. But Viru, as always, was different. No one else could have said on twitter,"Panga na lo." And that's why when we heard him say that he was proud to have fulfilled his son's wishes, it was the ultimate sporting romance of all. Here was a master batsman and doting father, perhaps past his prime in his cricket, who managed to turn the clocks back one more time and in the process please his young son no end. It will surely rank as one of the best moments of IPL 7.

As one who has always backed Virender Sehwag and has been an admirer of his exceptional shot making ability, it was vindication. That this man could still enthral, could still flay India's premier spinners, Ashwin and Jadeja, to all corners of the park. To repeat the cliché, class is indeed permanent.

Can Virender Sehwag make it back to the Indian team for the 2015 world cup? Does he still have cricket left in him to go through the hard domestic grind and score consistently to reopen up the doors of the Indian team? Can there be a final swansong for Viru Sehwag, the India cricketer? Frankly, it is a very difficult road ahead for him. Perhaps it is a tad unrealistic to expect that he can make it back in time for WC 2015. But all of this doesn't really matter If we treat sport as pure entertainment, Virender Sehwag is the ultimate entertainer. And he has entertained us enough for a good part of a decade.

He has scored multiple triple hundreds, 284 in a day of Test match cricket, a magical 195 at the MCG and a stupendous 309 in Multan. And in reminding us of what all he has done, he scored the brilliant 122 at the Wankhede against M S Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings. Even if Viru Sehwag doesn't ever make a comeback into the Indian team he will forever rank as one of the best opening batsman to have played for India. Perhaps only second to Sunil Gavaskar in terms of longevity but at the very top if we take into account the impact he had on the game.

It was largely thanks to Sehwag's heroics at the top of the order that Dhoni's India scaled the number one position in Test rankings in 2009. As someone who redefined the art of opening the batting in tests and as someone who could smile in the same carefree manner after scoring a duck, Virender Sehwag will always be one of India's most loved cricketers. The reaction across the country following his 122 is proof. More than Sehwag, all of India wanted him to succeed. What more can a performer ask for?