Virender Sehwag always had a sense of timing. Of the 17,253 international runs he scored over 14 years, Sehwag's amazing ability to spank the cricket ball boiled down to some precise coordination between hand and eye. Bred on the relatively grassless and matting pitches of northern India, Sehwag wasn't the 'perfect' batsman who would play in the 'V' and build his innings piece by piece like a Gavaskar or Lara would do. On the contrary, he defied the grammar book almost every time he stepped out to bat, his first scoring shot would invariably screech through point or cover.