Would've played for India at a younger age if I had modern-day facilities: Virender Sehwag

Sehwag, who made his India debut in 1999 when he was 21 and got regular in the side after a successful South Africa tour in 2001, said the youngsters currently have technology at their disposal which can help them correct the faults in their game.

Former India opener Virender Sehwag played international cricket roughly for 14 years. During that period, he successfully completed the journey from a middle order batsman to become one of India’s most feared openers in all formats of the game. A good six-seven years after his retirement from international cricket, Sehwag said he perhaps would have played for India at a younger age had he got the support of modern technologies like the internet.

Virender Sehwag

Sehwag, who made his India debut in 1999 when he was 21 and got regular in the side after a successful South Africa tour in 2001, said the youngsters currently have technology at their disposal which can help them correct the faults in their game.

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"Today, there are videos available on the internet about all things cricket to learn for the younger people. Maybe if I had those facilities in my day, I would have learned things faster and possibly had played for the Indian team at a younger age," Sehwag said while speaking during the launch of the Circuru App.

The former dashing opener, who represented India in 104 Tests, 251 ODIs and 19 T20Is, added that he learned to play the straight after watching the legendary Sachin Tendulkar play it in the 1992 World Cup.

"I started seeing cricket on television during the 1992 World Cup and by looking on television, I tried to learn the straight drive of Sachin Tendulkar," he said.

After being promoted as an opener thanks to an inspired move by then India captain Sourav Ganguly, Sehwag started India’s innings alongside Tendulkar in ODI cricket for a number of years. Such was Sehwag's impact that Tendulkar and Ganugly decided that it was better for them to rotate as openers than bring the Delhi cricketer to No.3.

The right-hander is the first Indian to score a triple century in Test cricket and till date the only to get to the triple century twice. Sehwag also has six double hundreds to his name.