Virender Sehwag Biography

Virender Sehwag Biography

Sehwag bats with the freedom that Tendulkar batted with in his youth. He has the same ability to make the situation, the bowler and the pitch look irrelevant. In fact, in what Sehwag himself considers to be his greatest compliment, Tendulkar has said that of the younger crop of players, it is Sehwag who most resembles his style of play.

Sehwag's approach to batting is based on a simple philosophy: if the ball is there to be hit, he will hit it. Of course, his idea of a ball that can be hit differs considerably from most other batsmen!

Due to his style of play, Sehwag was initially typecast as a limited-overs specialist, and had to wait two years after making his ODI debut to play a Test match, but in an ironic twist of fate, it is his Test record that is far more imposing, while he has not done justice to his enormous talent in One Day Internationals.

After some middling performances when he came into the scene initially, Sehwag literally exploded off the blocks when sent in to open the innings against New Zealand in his 15th ODI match. He scored a century off 69 balls, and first displayed his big-hitting ability then.

He played a vital role to India's success in the longest format on their way to becoming the world number 1. However, Sehwag slowly started to lose form since the 2010 season and his place in the side was being questioned. In his last 20 appearances he managed just one score of hundred of more, a stat that reflected India's poor run in Test cricket during the period. He was then recalled to the side for the home Test series against Australia, but lack of performances forced to exclude him from the side for the last two Tests.

Though his ODI career is not as good as his Test record, Sehwag holds the record for the highest individual score in a match when he made 219 against West Indies at Indore in 2011, which was only the second double ton in the 50-over format, next only to Sachin Tendulkar's 200 not out against South Africa at Gwalior. However, he didn't do anything of note after that and was dropped for the home ODI series against England after a string of poor shows.