Popularly known as the most destructive right-handed opening batsman of India and part-time right-arm off-spin bowler, Virender Sehwag, represented India from 1999 to 2013 and played dominating innings as the opener for almost 10 years but sadly his farewell could not be high profile. He started his career in domestic cricket for the states of Delhi & Haryana. Virender Sehwag’s father was a grain merchant in Haryana, he was brought up in a joint family, grew up like many others of his generation to become Sachin Tendulkar, and was married to Aarti Ahlawat whom he knew for a very long time.
Sehwag played his first-class cricket debut match for Delhi Cricket Team in 1997-98 and started his ODI career against Pakistan in Pepsi Cup 1999 held in Mohali with a disappointing start getting out lbw to Shoaib Akhtar scoring just 1 run and expensive bowling conceding 35 runs off only 3 overs. An unimpressive start leads to his drop from national team and he struggled to make his comeback in the squad for almost 20 months until the home series against Zimbabwe in December 2000. Sehwag gained momentum in his fourth ODI match in March 2001 where he played 58 runs off 54 balls against Australia in Bangalore, along with taking three wickets for 59 runs helping India register a massive victory of 60 runs and was very impressive. He was awarded his first Man of the Match award. He again showed inconsistent form against Zimbabwe in mid-2001 with poor scores of 1 (vs Pak), DNB (vs Zim) & 19 (vs Zim). But in the fourth ODI match, he scored 58 runs and took the wickets of strong players, Hayden, Martyn & Steve Waugh, from there he continued to be successful. He earned the confidence of the selectors and became a regular national team member in 2001. Even when he started his international career, he continued to play for Delhi in domestic cricket and captained North Zone to victory in Deodhar Trophy in 2004-05.
He kept showing extraordinary form every year after 2001 and the opening pairing with Sachin Tendulkar propelled him to fame and was one of the most destructive opening pairs in India. He played brilliantly along with the Little Master and supported him almost every time. Sehwag and Tendulkar scored 4,387 ODI runs together, which included several matches where they played as opening partners. As a partnership, their characters were inseparable and opposite. Sehwag’s natural game was known for the power-hitting, opposite of Tendulkar’s composed approach. Indian Team was struggling to get the best opening partners till it got Sachin-Sehwag combination. The duo played a major role in India’s victory in the 2011 World Cup. They almost paired as openers in 93 innings. They together scored 3919 runs at an average of 42.13, sharing 12 century-plus stands and 18 fifty-plus stands in ODIs, showing the best partnership of 182 runs.
Virender Sehwag has been a naturally genius boundary hitter with minimal footwork who least believes in taking ones and twos. His Test runs scored are at a faster pace than anyone in the history of cricket. Sehwag was a boundary hitter since the onset in the field and was responsible for giving India a quick start, giving a nightmare to any bowler with his hard hits. Sachin Tendulkar was his Idol and when he was a replacement for injured Sachin against New Zealand in Sri Lanka, he confused the people by following his footsteps and scoring his first one-day century. Together Sachin and Sehwag were hard-hitting, scoring hundreds on a red-hot pitch, later followed by a comparatively calm role played by the master blaster scoring a triple hundred, first by an Indian, in Multan with a six. He was lucky this time as two tests ago he tried the same shot to complete a double hundred and have been dismissed playing the shot, falling five runs short of his first test double hundred. Hitting triple century was, of course, the turning point of his career in Multan as he became the first Indian to do that and the country started seeing the shade of Tendulkar in him and the form continued until the end of the year 2006.
Scoring as many runs as possible quickly was his approach making him a fearless opener. He was a keen observer and strategic analyst of his opponent’s strengths & weaknesses. He made look hitting shots quite easy, which others dare not. He often use to take risks and opportunities to hit hard even good balls. His expertise was hitting the ball harder square on the off side which is less frequent for others. Sehwag was a nightmare for spinners and he was most attacking to the world’s best spinners. The most striking feature in Sehwag’s career has been his scoring runs at massive speed. He holds the Indian record for the highest number of test double-hundreds. He truly emerged as a power-packed batsman in innings against Sri Lanka at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai. At one time during his ODI career, he once held the record for the highest score (fabulous 219) against West Indies. Sehwag was equally very blunt in sharing his thoughts about his and his team’s game off the field in a daring manner.
After a fantastic double hundred against Pakistan, later in games regularly getting out in single-digit scores was endangering his position in the Indian cricket team and his continuous out of form made selectors drop him from playing the diabolical world cup. When everything was going wrong, instead of becoming hopeless, he gathered courage and came back well in Ranji Trophy. Now when he was called back in lower down the order to play two tests but he was unable to capitalize. But in the second innings of the last test, he smashed 151 match-saving runs. In mid of his career, he was used much more than a part-time spinner. His five-wicket haul against the Australians during a Test match in Delhi in 2008, and a couple of crucial wickets against the same opposition earlier in the year at the WACA, Perth, are two examples which stand out.
Sehwag was honored as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the world for his 2008 performance. Occasionally acting as vice-captain during the absence of the captain of India, he was also the former captain of Delhi Daredevils and the Delhi Ranji Team. The power and placement of shots often surprised his critics as there was no footwork involved. His form in test cricket was back but yet to gain momentum in the ODI series and people started raising questions about his placement in Indian Squad. But selectors showed faith in him and picked him up for test series against South Africa where he answered his critics by smashing another triple century and at the same time maintained his form in IPL and captained the Delhi side to the semifinals.
Virender Sehwag never played with techniques, and minimal footwork and often got out behind stumps playing cutting balls close to his body and going across stumps, stump out which was most disappointing for a coach. People used to wonder then how he could average nearly 50 in Test Cricket for 11 odd years. The reason is simple. He had amazing hand-eye coordination allowing making runs all around the field even against the best bowling attacks. During the height of his career of 9-10 years, he had powerful hand-eye coordination which is quite obvious to get fades as players age. Virender Sehwag could not change his natural game later stage of his career unlike Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar who became successful players even in the later part of their careers. Virender Sehwag could not adapt himself and be mostly used to getting out playing attacking shots.
But when Virender Sehwag, who never had the best of techniques, to begin with, was faced with this, he could not adapt in the same way. This often resulted in him getting out while playing attacking shots.
Let’s understand the reason to remember this iconic player. His destructive approach was also carried in Test matches making him the only Indian batsman among the top three batsmen in Test Cricket to have a strike rate in excess of 80 which is remarkable. Sehwag is one of the batsmen in cricket history for having scored two tests triple centuries matching the feat of Donald Bradman. Sehwag will be known for fast scorer and often a nightmare to spinners especially.
Virender Sehwag was often surrounded by controversies as diplomacy was not his cup of tea and was straightforward. He has given the most outrageous statements in public which other cricketers would resist saying. He once said in a mega event sharing stage with Shahrukh Khan narrating an incident that happened during India -Pakistan game where Shoaib Akhtar was banging the ball short and provoking Sehwag to play a hook shot. Sehwag replied “jo non-striker end pe khada hai who tera baap hai, usko bol who maar k dikhaega”. Later Sachin Tendulkar hit Shoaib for six. As Shoaib walked back for the next ball, Sehwag said, “Beta beta hota hai aur baap baap hota hai”. “Bangladesh can’t [beat India in Tests]. They are an ordinary side.” The statement was given by Virender Sehwag on eve of the first Test between India and Bangladesh at Chittagong in 2010 and left everyone awestruck although it falls the opposite as Indian Team was bowled out for 243 the next day, just managed to win the game by the 113 runs.
On winning Man of the match, the general expectation is the diplomatic statement of praising everybody’s efforts and ignoring those who had a bad day in the game but Sehwag bluntly said this during ICC World Cup 2011 after a big victory against Bangladesh. “Everyone had a good match except Sreesanth” as he was quite expensive giving away 53 runs in five overs.
During the Australia tour in 2012, skipper M S Dhoni decided to select two seniors out of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, and Gautam Gambhir as a rotation policy throughout the series to give chance to youngsters also. But later in the game, Dhoni was banned for a game, Team was led by Virender Sehwag, and took the outstanding catch at mid-wicket and replied to a person asking about Dhoni’s statement of the slowness of seniors “Have you seen my catch”, better ask Dhoni when he comes for next match.
Sehwag gave an astonishing response to a question put by a reporter on how he was able to tackle Sri Lankan spinner Ajantha Mendis to which he replied, “Bhaisaab, spinner ko spinner batsmen banate hein! Agar use aap ball spin hi naa karne do, aur pehli hi over me use bahar pheink do, who zindagi bhar spin nahi karenga!” Sehwag was the talk of the town along with some of senior players & their possible retirements when dropped from Indian Team for the Asia Cup in Bangladesh. “Cricket is not like a government job where the retirement age is fixed at 60. A cricketer can retire at 30 or 60; it’s up to the player, Jayasuriya played till 42″, a statement released by Sehwag. Sehwag sticks to never believing in technique, but only in performance. It was the T20 world cup and the whole country was celebrating India’s success Sehwag intervened for the T20 World Cup win, and bluntly replied it was not Dhoni’s captaincy but the entire Team’s effort as Team India which entered the T20 world cup race was strong Team already. “Dhoni’s captaincy alone didn’t win World Cup for India.”
Sehwag was among the senior players whom Greg Chappell wanted to drop off from the side but his performance down the years made him a mainstay among the Indian Top order along with Ganguly, Dravid, and Tendulkar. Sehwag’s nondefensive approach in the game laid the foundation for many victories but then what worked for him worked against too. The public starts agitated with his casual approach where he was supposed to stay calm and hit later,he failed. Rather than playing ground shots often he used to lift the ball in the air fearlessly which sometimes worked and most of the time against the game. His success was seen more in longer versions of games contradictory to his aggressive style of playing.
In 2011, Gary Kirsten joined India as coach, following which the team lost all eight of their test games against England and Australia, Sehwag failed terribly scoring 239 runs in 12 innings at an average of 19.91, same as his Delhi teammate Gautam Gambhir. Also, there were fumes of a rift between him and Dhoni. During the 2012 tri-series involving hosts Australia, India, and Sri Lanka, Dhoni was not pleased with Sehwag’s fielding. There was also a feeling of discomfort when Sehwag captained India in a match against the Lankans during that competition as Dhoni was watching the match proceedings from the boundary ropes closely and India happened to lose the game. India did not make tom the finals of the tournament; Sehwag was a poor scorer in the match with 65 runs in five matches at an average of 13. Although Dhoni continued to be in charge Sehwag was dropped.
After a series of inconsistent performances, Sehwag played his last test during Australia’s return tour of India in 2012-13 in the second match of the series in Hyderabad and the Indians whitewashed the Aussies 4-0, compensating for the loss they had suffered 12 months back. Later, Sehwag was never picked for an ODI featuring team India again. Many questions are yet unanswered whether it was after Kirsten’s departure in 2011, Dhoni’s favorites in the game, or the arrival of Fletcher as the new coach that brought changes at the top order in the Indian cricket team. Whatever the case, the damage had been done, at least as far as Sehwag was concerned and he could never manage to return to the Indian side. Many fans were so disappointed as he deserved a farewell match. People believe he might have more respectful exit had he stuck to his decision years back on the onset of Shikhar Dhawan to the Indian side in 2013 who gave a sensational start scoring a hundred on his debut against visitors Australia which officially sealed the fate of Sehwag forever. Sehwag who was once the destroyer of the finest bowling attacks was now bunny to some of the weakest bowling attacks in the game.
Sehwag’s exit was a mark of the end of India’s most successful batting era. Nawab of Najafgarh was the owner of a magnificent career – 8273 runs from 251 ODIs and 8586 runs from 104 Tests – along with blasting two triple tons and daring 294 runs against Sri Lanka at the Wankhede, much applauded by Indians. On Sehwag’s 37th birthday, he disclosed his plan of taking retirement from all formats of Cricket. Nine days after announcing his decision to retire from international cricket on his 37th birthday, Sehwag revealed his thoughts of quitting cricket much before in 2007, after a string of mediocre scores the Delhi dasher was not in the favorite list of Indian selectors. That is when he decided to call it a day but the aggressive opener was stopped by Sachin Tendulkar and the nation failed to witness a great farewell match of Virender Sehwag.