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Cricket Players'He used to wear same shirt again and again. So we tore it': Sehwag recalls ex-domestic star's bizarre 'superstition'
Virender Sehwag recalled a former Indian cricketer's practice of wearing the same shirt “again and again,” as part of a bizarre superstition.
Many players believe in superstitions. A lot of them start a particular practice and make a habit of repeating it, irrespective of whether it actually helps in their performances. Tennis player Rafael Nadal is very particular about his placement of bottles before he takes to the court. India's batting great Sachin Tendulkar had made it a habit to wear his left pad first before going to the crease.
In the World Cup final in 2011, Tendulkar forced Virender Sehwag to sit alongside him; even prohibiting his fellow opening partner to use the washroom, as then-captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir forged a partnership in the 275-run chase. On Saturday, however, Sehwag revealed a bizarre superstition of one of India's former domestic cricketers – Rajeev Nayyar.
The batter holds the record for the longest innings in First-class cricket (271 for Himachal Pradesh against Jammu & Kashmir in 1999), playing for 1,015 minutes during a Ranji Trophy game. Nayyar ended his domestic career with 6,8881 runs in 96 first-class games, and Sehwag revealed that the batter used to “wear the same T-shirt again and again,” because it made him comfortable.
“There was this player named Rajeev Nayyar in Himachal Pradesh. He used to wear the same t-shirt again and again. It wasn't as if he would score whenever he wore that shirt, but he felt comfortable and he was superstitious about it; he felt he would score runs if wears the shirt,” Sehwag said on Cricbuzz.
“So, when we were playing in the North Zone, we tore that shirt because we knew when Delhi and Himachal would meet, he would play wearing the same shirt! So we tore that shirt so that he doesn't score against us,” Sehwag said, inducing laughter from fellow expert Ajay Jadeja and host Gaurav Kapur.
Sehwag narrated the story as he talked about his own superstition of “writing” about his mindset every time he took the field.
