Sehwag, Dravid have kept their style intact

Their styles are vastly different, but what they share is immense pride in performance and a hunger to excel. Amrit Mathur reports.

For the players, the Indian Premier League unfolds in the fast forward mode - a non-stop whirl of match, travel, and training and preparation. The schedule is such there is no time for reflection or course correction.

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Settling into his seat in the team bus (first row on the left, next to the window), Virender Sehwag is unfazed. He chats with the bus driver, consults with coach Shipperd about practice the next day and fixes a dinner appointment with his opening partner David Warner.

Sehwag is a master of this game, a proven match-winner who trusts his instincts and intuition, someone driven by self-belief. I have to make runs, he says. If I spend time at the wicket, the team will do well.

Just as Sehwag trusts his methods, so does Rahul Dravid, another senior pro on the circuit. Their styles are vastly different, but what they share is immense pride in performance and a hunger to excel. T20 works for dashers like Sehwag, but Dravid has reinvented himself to compete with young players with fresh legs.

Dravid, the model pro, has quickly merged into the system, a skilled artist who has effortlessly embraced a new challenge. For all his fame, Dravid is remarkably modest; when fans praise him he appears awkward, even embarrassed. Like Sehwag, but in a very different way, he is unflustered, calm but committed.