Virender Sehwag

One of the many Indians who idolised Sachin Tendulkar, this man was really something special. Unreal hand-eye coordination, minimal foot movement and tremendous positive instinct were the things on which this legend based his game on. It was hard to differentiate him in the middle when he was sharing the crease with the Little Master.

There could be no Indian Test XI of all-time without Virender Sehwag featuring in it as an opener. This is the same player who was no where in contention for a place in the longest format. Sehwag could be the most important player post-2000 as he changed batting manuals completely with elan. This was on evidence specially during India’s two important Test tours against Australia and Pakistan in 2003/04 where he scored in huge number to effect a draw and a win respectively. Here was an opener who would attack bowlers from the word go. Sanath Jayasuriya had shown that in ODIs prior to him but in Tests it was Sehwag who gave the lie to all earlier conceptions of batting.

The result was six double centuries, highest by an Indian, including two triple centuries. It could safely be said that no batsman during that time won India as many Tests as Sehwag. He played several great knocks but one that comes to mind straightaway was his double century against Ajantha Mendis and Muttiah Muralitharan in Galle in 2008. While Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman had great difficulty facing them all through the series, Sehwag played them as if they were average bowlers. He played off spinners with ease and he also told his teammate Ravichandran Ashwin once that 'You know what, I don't think off-spinners are bowlers. They do not trouble me at all. I just find it easy smashing them'. That just speaks volumes of his dominating nature with the bat.

Sehwag, who had scored a ton on his Test debut in South Africa in 2001, was a part of the team that won the 2007 World T20 and 2011 World Cup and played his role to perfection. The Nawab of Najafgarh retired from international cricket in 2015 and took up cricket commentary. “Viru” is very popular with fans in his new role for his humorous observations. He was appointed as the director (Cricket Operations) for Punjab in the 2017 Indian T20 League.