Sehwag would’ve had 10k runs if he played for another team; was under Sachin, Dravid’s shadow: Ex-Pak captain

Lauding Sehwag’s fearless attitude in front of world’s best fast bowlers like Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar, Latif said the former India opener was an impactful player.

Virender Sehwag played in an era when the Indian batting line-up was regarded as one of the strongest in the world in both formats of the game. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman were world-beaters in their own way but Sehwag still managed to make his place in cricketing history, making sure people always remember him for the impact he had on opposition bowlers. Touching the same point, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif said Sehwag always remained under the shadows of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

Virender Sehwag (Twitter)

Lauding Sehwag’s fearless attitude in front of world’s best fast bowlers like Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee, Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar, Latif said the former India opener was an impactful player.

“He used to play to dominate. We are used to openers who were a bit circumspect at the beginning, gauging how the pitch is, who the bowler is whether (Glenn) McGrath, Brett Lee, Wasim Akram or Shoaib Akhtar. But Sehwag was someone who feared none. He was an impactful player, had a great influence in his team and players like him succeed in world cricket,” Latif said in a Youtube show called Caught Behind.

Latif, who played 37 Tests and 166 ODIs for Pakistan, said Sehwag would have scored more runs had he not been under the shadows of bigger Indian players.

“Sehwag’s record speaks for him. He has 8 thousand plus runs in Test cricket. He is someone who has always remained under the shadows of other players. He played with Sachin, played with Rahul and remained under their shadow. If he was playing for any other country then he would’ve easily crossed 10 thousand runs, only one and a half thousand runs were remaining.

“Maybe his team had bigger names, bigger players but opponents were always wary of the impact that Sehwag could have on a game,” Latif added.

Sehwag, who is the only Indian to have scored two triple centuries in Test cricket, retired with an average of 49.34. He scored 23 hundreds in 104 Tests accumulating 8586 runs.

In ODIs, the Delhi cricketer had 8273 runs in 251 matches. Sehwag’s record against Pakistan was phenomenal. The dashing opener scored 1276 runs in 9 Tests against Pakistan at a staggering average of 91.14 that had 4 hundreds and a triple century.

Latif also lauded Sehwag’s unique technique and said he had the perfect balance to play backfoot punches, cuts and pulls.

“It’s wrong to say his feet didn’t move. He had unique technique with a very strong base. Was superb on the backfoot, used to cut, pull, hook with ease. In Sydney Test Brett Lee was bowling to him with a third man and deep point in the first over a Test match.

He had beautiful balance. People say that he had limited feet movement but that was perhaps the reason why he was so successful. And coaches nowadays have started to say that keep your balance with minimum foot movement,” Latif said.