Virender Sehwag: The man who feared none and regretted less
Virender Sehwag calls it a day on his Cricket career
Would love to be associated with the game as a coach or commentator -Sehwag
Virender Sehwag, one of world’s most destructive opening batsmen, announced his retirement from international cricket as well as from the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Tuesday, his 37th birthday. The right handed batsmen epitomized the quote “Live by the sword and die by the sword” as he never changed his technique irrespective of the match situation. Along with Sachin he formed one of the most fearsome opening combinations in world cricket.
“I hereby retire from all forms of international cricket and from the Indian Premier League. A statement will follow.”- Tweeted Viru to his fans and followers. Soon after his announcement twitter was abuzz with many praising the Delhi born batsmen for his contribution to Indian cricket.
Nawab of Najafgarh, Sultan of Multan among the many accolades achieved by the swashbuckling right hander
Not many batsmen have the courage do hit a six when nearing a century let alone think about hitting the ball out of the park when on 295. Ignoring Sachin’s advice at the non strikers end, Viru danced down the track to Saqlain Mushtaq and blitzed his way to becoming India’s first triple centurion in test cricket. Some years later he tore into the South African attack in Chennai to yet another triple ton which was more than run a ball- the fastest in the games history. He also played a major role in scripting a memorable win for India in Chennai after the Mumbai attacks.Had it not been for Sehwag’s brutal innings at the top, India might have not given a thought to chase 387 in a day and a half.
Sehwag’s love affair also brought down his down fall some times as he missed a double ton in Australia and another triple ton against Sri Lanka when going for the big hit on 195 and 295 respectively. But the Nawab of Najafgarh stuck by his own theory book “See the ball, hit the ball”.
Changed the way test openers batted
In a glorious international career spanning over 12 years, Sehwag played 104 Tests scoring 8586 runs at an impressive average of 49.34, hitting 23 centuries and 32 half-centuries, but the most remarkable of the feat was the rate at which he scored them. He had a belligerent strike rate of over 82!, that is more than the ODI strike rate of over 70% batsmen. He holds the record for converting 11 successive Test hundreds into 150+ scores
In 251 ODIs, he accumulated 8273 runs at an average of 35.05 and scored 15 hundreds apart from hitting 38 fifties. His last ODI was against Pakistan at Kolkata in January 2013.
