With just a week left for the IPL-6 opener against defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders, the former Daredevils captain is getting down to serious business.
Sehwag reached Jamia Milia Islamia sports complex an hour into the Daredevils practice on Tuesday and didn't miss a minute in donning his pads to hit the nets.
The spectacles that he last wore during the Hyderabad Test against Australia last month were nowhere to be seen as Sehwag began his hour-long stint.
Looking a bit scratchy to begin with, he slowly began to find his range, playing clean shots interspersed with the occasional mistimed drive. Most deliveries were played along the turf - rarely seen when Viru plays international cricket - but the few that went up looked far from convincing.
The 34-year-old has been replaced as Daredevils skipper by Mahela Jayawardene but that doesn't dilute Sehwag's importance in the side. Delhi has already been pushed to the backfoot - with Kevin Pietersen being ruled out of IPL due to a knee injury - and Viru's form is crucial.
Team's head coach Eric Simons was impressed by what little he saw of Viru in the training session. "I have always been a big Viru fan - the way he thinks and functions.
I have interacted with him closely, in the Indian team as well as the Daredevils, over the last three years," Simons told TOI after the session. "He is looking very calm in the middle and he always like performing for Delhi in the IPL. I think we can draw a lot of positives from the way he's preparing here," he added.
The former India bowling coach knows KP's absence will be a big hole to fill and emphasized that Daredevils' strategies this season might be a whole lot different. "No team in the world will find it easy to cope with KP's loss. His influence both on and off field was immense last year.
"The one positive from this is that we'll have a lot of continuity in the team. When KP left in the middle of the season the gameplan often changed. Now that he's not available at all, we'll be strategizing a little differently," he added.
The powerful Andre Russell was in his elements on Tuesday, clobbering some of the biggest hits seen at the Jamia ground. "We always need match-winners and players who are explosive in T20.
You can't teach someone to hit like Russell or a Chris Gayle. We'll try and use his X-factor this season and maybe he could prove to be something special," Simons felt.
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