Virender Sehwag. The Lion from Delhi. The name in itself is enough to instill fear in the hearts of the opposition bowlers. The man who is the living embodiment of introducing a hardcore and aggressive form of batting right from the onset of the innings is one the best batsman to have played for India and is a certified living legend.
Sehwag was one of those players for the Indian team who used to smash bowlers while singing songs for fun. During an interview, he revealed that once he asked one of his teammates to go and get the lyrics of a song while batting as he was not able to concentrate because he had forgotten the lyrics.
Sehwag’s style of play needs no introduction, to be honest – the minimum of forwarding movement of the feet to caress the ball to the boundary is something that has been witnessed innumerable times. And a high backlift to punch the ball through the gap between extra cover and the point fielder is a sight for sore eyes.
The early life of the Indian cricketer:
Virender Sehwag was born on 20th October 1978 in Najafgarh and has been nicknamed the Nawab of Najafgarh. He was born into a Jar family to Krishnan and Krishna Sehwag. Sehwag’s ancestral roots belong to the Indian state of Haryana.
He attends the Arora Vidya School as a child in New Delhi. Sehwag hails from a large family and had two sisters – Anju and Manju and a little brother Vinod growing up.
He started playing cricket at an early age when he was gifted with a bat by his father at a tender age and used to play with it in the playground. He was coached under Amar Nath Sharma and had a reputation for being an aggressive and attacking-minded player.
Virender Sehwag didn’t receive a lot of support from his family to pursue a career in cricket but he evaded with help from his mother. He completed higher studies at Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi.Â
Family:
The Destructive batsman Virender Sehwag’s better half Aarti beats everybody regarding wellness and excellence. Notwithstanding being away from the spotlight, she keeps on ruling Social Media platforms with her lovely and stylish pictures.
Aarti Sehwag is the mother of 2 children, one of whom is 15 years of age and the other is 13 years of age. Taking a gander at Aarti’s Fitness and her sleek style, nobody can say that she is the mother of a 15-year-old child.
Aarti Ahlawat and Virender Sehwag have known one another since adolescence. The fellowship of these two bit by bit transformed into adoration. Then Aarti and Sehwag adored marriage. Sehwag and Aarti were hitched in the year 2007.
Domestic Career:
Sehwag made his debut for the Delhi cricket team in 1997-1998 and represented North Zone in the Duleep Trophy in the following season and was the fifth-highest run-getter. He maintained a steady and consistent run achieving form and quickly caught the eyes of the selectors.
He was fourth in the list of run-scorers in the 1999-2000 Duleep Trophy season and scored a massive 274 in 327 balls against the South Zone at Agartala.
His attacking mindset was clear from his early days wherein he scored a rapid 187 from 175 balls against Punjab in a Ranji Trophy match. In addition to having a successful start to his domestic career, he was also selected for the South Africa tour of the National U-19 team.
International Career:
Start of ODI cricket Career:
However his international career began with a rocky start – he made his debut against Pakistan in April 1999 and got out poorly for just a mere 1 run after being trapped in front of the wickets by former Pakistani pace spearhead Shoaib Akhtar. He didn’t get another opportunity up until December 2000 against Zimbabwe.
Virender Sehwag breakthrough performance came against Australia in Bangalore in March 2001 wherein he scored 58 from 54 balls and backed that up by taking 3 wickets and bagging his first man of the match award.
An Indian batsman breaking records:
Virender Sehwag scored a brilliant century in the match against New Zealand off just 69 balls and thus announced himself on the world platform. This was the third fastest ODI century by an Indian batsman at that moment behind only to Mohammed Azharuddin and Yuvraj Singh.
Virender Sehwag himself later broke this record by scoring off 60 deliveries. Virender Sehwag attracted praise from the cricketing fraternity with former Windies legend Desmond Haynes appreciating his batting style after a blistering half-century against Zimbabwe in Bloemfontein off just 22 balls!
Test cricket Career:
Although his performances in the ODI format continued to impress, Sehwag didn’t break into the Indian test side until late 2001 wherein he got a chance against South Africa. Although India lost Sehwag scored a mature knock of 105 on debut.
His form continued to impress the selectors and he was promoted to open the innings for the 2002 England tour and scored a ton load of runs- 84 at Lord’s followed up by a century at Trent Bridge. He scored his first century in test cricket against the West Indies which was a 147-run knock at the Wankhede of Mumbai. In the next series, he scored 130 against New Zealand at Mohali.
The destructive batsmen:
The former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag always had a knack for piling up the big scores and thus was prominent in the test cricket series against Pakistan in 2004. He became the only Indian to score a triple century in test cricket with his 309 in Multan.
He was also awarded the Man of the Series for his contributions with the bat. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Pakistan was one of his favorite opponents as in the home series against them in the next year he scored 544 runs which included a double century at an average of above 90 throughout the tournament.
Sehwag got another opportunity to open the innings after Sourav Ganguly was injured for the home series against England. Again he seized the opportunity by scoring 82 off 64- with consistent performances at the top of the order in a strategic move Sachin Tendulkar was shifted to the middle order to accommodate Virender Sehwag – a tactic that would pay great dividends later on.
The year 2008 in the test format was heavily productive for Virender Sehwag – he scored a test inning of 319 against South Africa at Chennai which was the fastest triple century in test cricket coming off just 278 deliveries. With that, he became the 3rd batsman after Brian Lara and Don Bradman to score two triple centuries.
World Cup Cricket:
Sehwag played his first ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 in Sri Lanka. The famous Virender Sehwag smashed the English bowlers to all parts of the ground with a 192 stand with Sourav Ganguly in which he scored 126. The Indian batsman bagged the man of the match awards during the series and was crucial in the semi-final match against South Africa – scoring 58 and with a bowling performance of 3/25 ensured India advanced to the finals. This was a beautiful part of Virender Sehwag biography in terms of international cricket.
Although he had an average World Cup in 2003 he top-scored in the final against formidable opponents Australia with a fighting 82 in Johannesburg.
He was included in the 2007 World Cup squad amidst poor form by Rahul Dravid and scored a magnificent 114 from 87 against Bermuda in a match in which India scored 413 to set the highest total in World Cup history.
In the 2011 World Cup as well his performances were noteworthy – he started off with a bang in the opening match against Bangladesh with a mammoth 175 and followed it with another impressive 73 against South Africa during the group stages.
He kicked off at a strike rate of 152 in the semi-final match against Pakistan and scored a quick-fire 38 and who can forget the consecutive 4 boundaries against Umar Gul to instill fear in the hearts of the Pakistani bowlers!
Virender Sehwag has an amazing strike rate throughout his ODI career scoring 105 runs per 100 deliveries. He also holds the record for the second-highest ODI score of 219 (149) against the West Indies and has been named in the World XI by Cricinfo in 2008 and 2011.
Indian Premier League Career:
Virender Sehwag captained the Delhi Daredevils during the first two editions of the Indian Premier League before stepping down to focus on his batting and passing the baton to Gautam Gambhir.
He was, however, the sole player retained by the franchise for the fourth season of the IPL, this time as captain of the Delhi Daredevils. In the fifth edition of the league, Virender Sehwag once again led the squad, breaking the record of being the first batter to achieve five straight half-centuries in the T20s.
Sehwag International school: Virender Sehwag Biography
In 2011, Sehwag started the Sehwag International School in Jhajjar in Haryana to fulfill his father’s dream.
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