Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag      

India

Full name Virender Sehwag

Born October 20, 1978, Delhi

Current age 31 years 1 days

Major teams India, Asia XI, Delhi, Delhi Daredevils,ICC World XI, India Blue, Leicestershire,Rajasthan Cricket Association President's XI

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm offbreak

Batting | Bowling | Career statistics | Profile | Notes | Latest Articles | Photos+ | Latest Photos

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	69	119	4	5757	319	50.06	7313	78.72	15	18	817	66	55	0
ODIs	205	200	8	6592	130	34.33	6472	101.85	11	35	902	107	79	0
T20Is	12	11	0	223	68	20.27	154	144.80	0	1	24	10	1	0
First-class	132	219	8	10244	319	48.54			29	36			114	0
List A	275	265	13	8545	130	33.90			12	52			103	0
Twenty20	50	49	4	1163	94*	25.84	742	156.73	0	7	139	45	8	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	69	65	2455	1265	29	5/104	5/118	43.62	3.09	84.6	0	1	0
ODIs	205	129	4015	3531	87	3/25	3/25	40.58	5.27	46.1	0	0	0
T20Is	12	1	6	20	0	-	-	-	20.00	-	0	0	0
First-class	132		7086	3698	93	5/104		39.76	3.13	76.1		1	0
List A	275		5620	4824	133	4/17	4/17	36.27	5.15	42.2	2	0	0
Twenty20	50	17	258	370	16	3/14	3/14	23.12	8.60	16.1	0	0	0

Career statistics

Test debut	South Africa v India at Bloemfontein, Nov 3-6, 2001 scorecard
Last Test	New Zealand v India at Wellington, Apr 3-7, 2009 scorecard
Test statistics	- Statsguru Test analysis -  Player analysis menu/filter  Test match list  ---------------------------------  Batting career summary  Batting innings list  High scores  Batting series averages  ---------------------------------  Bowling career summary  Bowling innings list  Bowling match list  Best innings bowling  Best match bowling  Bowling series averages  ---------------------------------  Fielding career summary  Fielding innings list  Most catches in an innings  Fielding series statistics
ODI debut	India v Pakistan at Mohali, Apr 1, 1999 scorecard
Last ODI	New Zealand v India at Auckland, Mar 14, 2009 scorecard
ODI statistics	- Statsguru ODI analysis -  Player analysis menu/filter  ODI match list  ---------------------------------  Batting career summary  Batting innings list  High scores  Batting series averages  ---------------------------------  Bowling career summary  Bowling innings list  Best innings bowling  Bowling series averages  ---------------------------------  Fielding career summary  Fielding innings list  Most catches in an innings  Fielding series statistics
T20I debut	South Africa v India at Johannesburg, Dec 1, 2006 scorecard
Last T20I	New Zealand v India at Wellington, Feb 27, 2009 scorecard
T20I statistics	- Statsguru T20I analysis -  Player analysis menu/filter  T20I match list  ---------------------------------  Batting career summary  Batting innings list  High scores  Batting series averages  ---------------------------------  Bowling career summary  Bowling innings list  Bowling series averages  ---------------------------------  Fielding career summary  Fielding innings list  Most catches in an innings  Fielding series statistics
First-class debut	1997/98
Last First-class	Mumbai v Rest of India at Nagpur, Oct 1-5, 2009 scorecard
List A debut	1997/98
Last List A	New Zealand v India at Auckland, Mar 14, 2009 scorecard
Twenty20 debut	Leicestershire v Yorkshire at Leicester, Jun 16, 2003 scorecard
Last Twenty20	Royal Challengers Bangalore v Delhi Daredevils at Bangalore, Oct 17, 2009scorecard

Profile

Virender Sehwag is a primal talent whose rough edges make him all the more appealing. By the time he had scored his first centuries in one-day cricket (off 70 balls, against New Zealand) and Test cricket (on debut, against South Africa, from 68 for 4), he was already eliciting comparisons with his idol Sachin Tendulkar. It is half true. Like Tendulkar, he is short and square with curly hair, plays the straight drive, backfoot punch and whip off the hips identically, but leaves Tendulkar in the shade when it comes to audacity.

Asked to open the innings in Tests on the tour of England in 2002, Sehwag proved an instant hit, cracking an 80 and a 100 in the first two matches. Regularly thereafter, he kept conjuring pivotal innings at the top of the order, none as significant as India's first 300 (which he bought up, characteristically, with a six), at Multan against Pakistan in early 2004.

Sehwag bowls effective, loopy offspin, and is a reliable catcher in the slips. He also once almost split the cricket world: when he was banned for a match by the ICC referee Mike Denness on grounds of excessive appealing, the Indian board wasn't prepared to listen, and even played an unofficial Test with South Africa to prove a point. When a compromise was finally reached, Sehwag was back to his merry ways.

Though he continued to dominate in the Test arena, Sehwag's one-day form dipped alarmingly - after January 2004, he went through a period of 60 matches where he averaged under 29. Despite his fitness levels dropping and his one-day spot being under threat - he was dropped from the side for the home series against West Indies in early 2007 - Sehwag continued to sparkle in Tests, as shown by his magnificent 254 at Lahore. In June, he came excruciatingly close to scoring a century before lunch in the first day against West Indies in St Lucia, a feat never accomplished before by an Indian batsman.

After a string of poor scores, Sehwag was dropped from India's Test squad to Bangladesh in 2007, and was not considered for either the Test or ODI sides to England. He was a surprise pick for the Test team to tour Australia after not being named in the initial list of probables.

Sehwag had to wait for two matches before he made a strong comeback in the Perth Test, where he gave the innings' momentum with knocks of 29 and 43, and took two wickets with his offspin in Australia's second innings, to help India claim one of their greatest wins. He followed it up with scores of 63 and an imperious 151 - his first century in the team's second innings - to help India draw the Test in Adelaide. Then, in the first Test against South Africa in Chennai, he made an even more emphatic statement, rattling off the quickest triple-century in Test cricket, off just 278 balls. He eventually made 319 - the highest score by an Indian - and in the process became only the third batsman, after Don Bradman and Brian Lara, to pass 300 twice in Tests. In his next Test series against Sri Lanka in 2008, Sehwag thrived while the Indian middle-order struggled against the mystery spin of Ajantha Mendis. His double-hundred and half-century were instrumental in India winning the Galle Test.

Link: Cricinfo

Wisden's Leading Cricketer in the World, 2008 Sehwag Simply Veeru

The Leading Cricketer in the World was instituted in Wisden 2004. The five previous winners have beenRicky Ponting, Shane Warne, Andrew Flintoff, Muttiah Muralitharan and Jacques Kallis. Players can be chosen more than once for this award.

Virender Sehwag had to beat off the strongest of challenges by Graeme Smith to become the Leading Cricketer in the World for 2008. Sehwag did so by taking the task of opening Test innings to a new level. He sought, and often achieved, mental domination from the first ball by scoring faster than any other opening batsman has ever done on a regular basis in Test cricket: 85 runs per 100 balls in the calendar year, without any soft opponents (Smith made 488 of his Test runs against Bangladesh); Sehwag also scored at 120 per 100 balls in one-day internationals.

He hit the fastest Test triple-century ever, from only 278 balls, against South Africa. Sehwag and India softened up Australia by defeating them 2-0 in India, for Smith and South Africa to beat them in Australia. Sehwag broke a mould as well as records: he set up the highest successful run-chase in Asia, and the fourth-highest to that point, by striking England's bowlers for 83 from 68 balls at Chennai. Smith was following Sehwag's suit when, a week later, he scored 108 in his second innings at Perth to set up the highest successful run-chase in Australia, and the second-highest ever.

It would be such a shame if Virender Sehwag needed to be buttressed with figures, hugely impressive as they are. They don't convey an iota of what the stocky figure of this Delhi dasher implies at the crease for bowlers. Fours and sixes come off his bat in rapid-fire succession, as if from a machine gun, and bowlers are out of their wits before long. A certain numbness overtakes them as they run up to bowl. And then there is mayhem.

Any coach of a rival team is at risk of slipping down in the eyes of his wards as soon as he floats a plan to curb Sehwag. In eight years and 66 Tests, there have been plans aplenty. Bowl him short-pitched deliveries - he doesn't have an on-side stroke except the thrust off his pads, and his straight drives aren't his strongest point. Don't give him room on his off stump, and tuck him up with big inswingers, are other suggestions. Yet nothing works. Sehwag somehow always creates room to free his arms. The overwhelming impression is that he wants every delivery to yield him a four or six.

Yet it would be folly to view Sehwag as no more than a rampaging bull in a cricketing arena. He is a masterful judge of a single, and it doesn't matter if the ball goes no more than a few feet away. He gets off the block quickly and has the confidence to take on the world's best. He isn't just a threat to those patrolling the boundaries; he is as much a menace to those who are marking the square. The opening pair of Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir are as exasperating with their running between wickets as with their inventive strokeplay.

Reputations don't matter to this most amazing of all modern cricketers, whose way of thinking is unlike any I have seen. He made a return to Test cricket in Perth at the start of 2008 and, despite being a borderline selection for the Australian tour and having been in hibernation for the best part of a year, he was as nonchalant as ever. Australia had packed their attack with four genuine fast bowlers on a track billed to be the WACA at its liveliest. No less a factor was the scorching hot and humid conditions. Sehwag's response? "Well, heat is welcome. It would mean the bowlers won't have long spells."

His mind is always working overtime on how to make bowlers lose their bearings. It was the same when, after almost two days in the field in the humidity of Chennai, he squared up to Dale Steyn, arguably the bowler of the year, and scored 319 off only 304 balls, judged by the ICC rankings as among the top ten Test innings of all time. Off his own bat Sehwag scored 257 runs on the third day, the most in modern times, against a high-class fielding side. Or when he smashed that double-hundred against Muttiah Muralitharan and freakish Ajantha Mendis, tipped to be the one who would redefine the art of spinning in years to come, and carried his bat for 201 out of India's total of 329 at Galle in July.

Sehwag is no mean off-spinner either, and has a five-for against Australia to prove it. Ego doesn't have any part in his mental make-up, and he rejoices as much in the success of a young mate as he applauds the milestones of a master like Sachin Tendulkar. He isn't the kind to hold grudges. And he only turned 30 in October 2008.

Sehwag is unorthodox, yet his batting skills vouch for the soundness of the time-tested art of batsmanship. Head completely still and movement of feet only once the ball is delivered. The only other player in the last decade who can be compared to him is Sanath Jayasuriya, but Sehwag is tighter and plays straighter, and hence is more consistent in all conditions, as shown by the fact that he has extended the last 11 of his 15 Test centuries to date past 150. His hand-eye co-ordination, grooved on the smooth concrete driveway beside the family home on the outskirts of Delhi, is freakish, and it allows him to predetermine his strokes. Virender Sehwag is a marvel of modern times, a genius who has confounded conventional wisdom, whose daring is now a part of cricket's folklore.

Source: Cricinfo