Sehwag is considered to be a highly destructive opener in the history of cricket. His aggressive style of batting at the opening position has been recognized for revolutionizing the game. By adopting an attacking approach from the very beginning of the innings, Sehwag often put the opposition team in a defensive position.
In ODIs, he teamed up with India’s renowned batsman Sachin Tendulkar to form an outstanding opening partnership. Sehwag also holds the Indian record for the highest individual score in Test cricket, having scored 319 runs against South Africa in 2008.
Sehwag often took on bowling attacks alone and led India to impressive scores by himself. In 2008, during India’s tour of Sri Lanka, Sehwag played an outstanding inning in the second Test of the series, scoring an unbeaten 201 while only two other batsmen in the entire team managed to score more than 10 runs. Despite this, Sehwag’s performance helped India reach a strong total of 329, and they went on to defeat Sri Lanka by 170 runs in Galle.
Sehwag with Youtuber Ranveer
In a conversation with renowned YouTuber Ranveer Allahbadia, Sehwag recounted an incident where he could have scored more runs if Ishant Sharma, who was the last batsman in the innings, had not encouraged him to take a single. Although the initial topic was about negative influences in the dressing room, Sehwag used this anecdote to illustrate his point about players being “selfish.”
“Bad vibes are in the sense that some want to score runs but want others to fail. Growing up, I’ve always wanted both, the opponent and I, to score runs. Whoever is better will eventually be selected. Why should I get selfish?”
Sehwag said as he began the story.
“Let me tell you a story. I was batting on 199. Ishant Sharma was my partner. I knew Ishant couldn’t play out Muralitharan and (Ajantha) Mendis. I could’ve been selfish that time, I could’ve taken a single to reach my 200 and give Ishant the strike. But I played out five deliveries against Muralitharan and took a single off the last ball.
“Ishant came to me and said, ‘Bhaiya, I will play. You’re getting scared for no reason’. I said okay, I scored 200, took a single, reached 201 and gave him the strike. Ishant couldn’t survive two balls. Then I asked him, ‘So you played them out? Are you done?’
“Here, I was thinking that I can add more runs to the scoreboard and he said he will play them out. It wasn’t important for me to score 200. All I wanted was to be at the strike and score as many runs as possible for the team. So, I didn’t have that selfishness,”
Sehwag said.
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