Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag will certainly go down as one of the most destructive batsmen to have stepped onto the cricket field and his numbers in all forms of cricket are sensational too. In fact, he is the only opener to have scored 7,500 runs in both ODIs and Test matches. However, former Pakistani captain Rashid Latif believes that Sehwag was always under the shadow of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid and had he played for any other team, he would have crossed the 10,000 run mark. Virender Sehwag Turns Cricket Coach for His Sons Aaryavir & Vedant, Sweats it Out in the Nets with Kids (Watch Video).
Heaping praises on the ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’ Latif said that Sehwag used to take on the likes of Wasim Akram, Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath from the outset and every opposition was vary of Sehwag’s impact in the game.
“He used to play to dominate. We are used to openers who were a bit circumspect at the beginning, gauging how the pitch is, who the bowler is whether (Glenn) McGrath, Brett Lee, Wasim Akram or Shoaib Akhtar. But Sehwag was someone who feared none. He was an impactful player, had a great influence in his team and players like him succeed in world cricket,” Latif said in a Youtube show called Caught Behind.
Further in the chat, the veteran of 166 ODIs said that his numbers in international cricket would have been even more staggering if he played for any other team. “Sehwag’s record speaks for him. He has 8 thousand plus runs in Test cricket. He is someone who has always remained under the shadows of other players. He played with Sachin, played with Rahul and remained under their shadow. If he was playing for any other country then he would’ve easily crossed 10 thousand runs, only one and a half thousand runs were remaining,” he added.
Talking about Sehwag’s unorthodox technique, the 51-year-old said that the former batman had a strong base due to which he played various shots with ease. “It’s wrong to say his feet didn’t move. He had a unique technique with a very strong base. Was superb on the backfoot, used to cut, pull, hook with ease. In Sydney Test Brett Lee was bowling to him with a third man and deep point in the first over a Test match,” said Latif.
Sehwag bid adieu to all forms of cricket in 2015 but not before amassing 8586 in 104 Test matches and 8273 runs in 251 ODIs. Besides this, he is the only Indian player to score two triple centuries in ODIs and he also holds the record of smashing the highest ODI score as a captain (219).
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 09, 2020 01:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).