Virender Sehwag put fear deep in the hearts of the world’s best bowlers for over a decade but the Nawab of Najafgarh recalled some nervous moments on his one-day international debut against Pakistan back in 1999.
Sehwag walked in to bat at No.7 against Pakistan in the Pepsi Cup but lasted only two deliveries before being trapped LBW by Shoaib Akhtar. Sehwag said Akhtar’s ball was so fast he did not know what hit him.
“I couldn’t see the ball, it was that quick. Shahid Nazir ki ball par edge lag gayi and jaise taise ek single mil gaya, but Shoaib was really quick,” Sehwag told the Hindustan Times.
Sehwag managed 1 off 2 balls in India’s seven-wicket defeat but former captain Sourav Ganguly pumped up the young Delhi player and told him not to lose heart.
“I was sitting in the team bus when Sourav came up to me and said: ‘Agar drop hota hai to itne run maarna ki waapas team me aaye.”
Sehwag did just that and hammered 757 runs at an average of 58 for Delhi in the 2000/01 season and was promptly picked for the tour of South Africa.
Sehwag made his Test debut at Bloemfontein. He joined Sachin Tendulkar at the crease when India were reeling at 68/4 and remembered his conversation with Sachin Tendulkar.
Tendulkar welcomed the debutant to the crease with these words. “Gudgudi ho rahi hai pet mein? (Do you have butterflies in the stomach?)” “I said, ‘wo sab chhodo sir, ye batao kya ho raha hai pitch par.’ (Leave all that, tell me what’s happening with the pitch.
“He (Tendulkar) said the South Africans would try to hurry me with bouncers. ‘Darna mat, alert rehna.’ Then, after some overs, he said, ‘now I’ll hit them over the slips, watch it.’ He began hitting over the slip cordon for fours. I thought let me try this and succeeded. We added over 200 runs together.”
India went on to lose that Test by nine wickets but that was the start of an incredible career and a fascinating partnership between Sehwag and Tendulkar.
A little less than three years after his debut, Sehwag was one of the most dangerous opening batsmen in world cricket. He was on song in Multan against Pakistan and with Tendulkar, had bullied Pakistan in their own den. The Little Master had threatened Sehwag with dire consequences unless Viru tightened his game and did not stop hitting those big sixes but the latter wasn’t going to pay heed.
“In Multan, me and Sachin had a big partnership. After my fourth six, Tendulkar came to me and said, ‘Mai tere ko bat se maarunga agar tune fir six maar toh.’ I was batting on 100-odd then, and till 295, I didn’t hit a six. When I reached 295, I told Sachin, ‘agar Saqlain ayega toh main chhakka maarunga’. Saqlain came and I hit a six to get to the triple hundred.
Sehwag would go on to score another triple hundred against South Africa four years later and miss his third one by seven runs against Sri Lanka at home. He also became the second batsman (after Tendulkar) to score a double hundred in ODIs.
Sehwag was compared to Tendulkar early in his career for his uncanny resemblance to the Little Master at the crease. Sehwag admitted he had tried to base his game around his cricket idol as a kid.
“As a kid, “I had modelled my game on Tendulkar’s. It was a compliment that people compared me with Sachin, but after one or two years, I thought there can’t be another Tendulkar, but there can be one Virender Sehwag. So, I assessed my game and changed it accordingly.”
That “change” brought about some stunning results – 8586 runs from 104 Tests and 8273 runs from 251 ODIs. Sehwag finally retired in October this year after being dropped from the national side in 2013.
