The former Pakistan pacer Rana Naved-ul-Hasan made a controversial statement saying Virender Sehwag was the easiest to dismiss.
Virender Sehwag was the easiest to dismiss says Rana Naved-ul-Hasan
Virender Sehwag is known as one of the most destructive openers and has 14 years of international career who changed the way how Test Cricket was played and perceived. With minimal footwork and maximum intent, Sehwag scored many runs in the long format of the game.
He was known for playing T20 cricket in Tests and was far ahead of his time. He played 104 Tests for India, scoring 8586 runs with an average of 49.34, which included two triple hundreds.
Recently, former Pakistan pacer Rana Naved-ul-Hasan has said Sehwag was the easiest to dismiss and even admits that he was the most difficult batter he bowled to.
In 251 ODIs, Sehwag accumulated 8,273 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.
In 19 20-20 Internationals, he managed 394 runs with two half-centuries. Sehwag has been a part of two World Cup-winning teams under Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s leadership in the 2007 World T20 in South Africa and the ICC Cricket World Cup in India.
Since retiring as a cricketer, Sehwag has taken up the role of a pundit and has often been sharing his views on the Indian cricket team’s assignments through different channels.
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan’s controversial statement
Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, on the other hand, played in 74 ODIs and took 110 wickets at an average of 29.28. More than half of those wickets came against India and West Indies.
However, he only played nine Tests and four T20Is, picking a total of 23 wickets.
“I will tell you an incident. There was a match where Sehwag was playing on 85. I am talking about the 2004-05 series which we won going there. I was the player of the tournament. The series was such that we were trailing 2-0.
It was a best-five series. In the third match of the series, Sehwag was hitting big. They almost scored 300 and Sehwag was nearing 85. I asked Inzy bhai to give me the ball. I bowled a slow bouncer,” said Naved-ul-Hasan.
“I went up to him and said ‘You don’t know how to play. Had you been in Pakistan, I don’t think you would have ever made it to the international team,” he added.
“He said a few things back to me. On my way back I told Inzi bhai ‘Next ball, he is getting out’. He was surprised. I bowled a back-of-the-hand slower ball, and an infuriated Sehwag tried to hit it big but holed out. The wicket was so important that we won that match. These are certain tricks of the fast bowler,” he further added.
“Sehwag was the easiest to dismiss and the most difficult to bowl at was Rahul Dravid,” said Naved-ul-Hasan.
Despite Naved-ul-Hasan’s dismissal of Sehwag, Pakistan fell short by 58 runs and lost the match against India at Visakhapatnam.
Virender Sehwag’s international career
Sehwag’s first international ODI was a disaster as he scored just one against Pakistan in April 1999. Thus almost for the next couple of years, he didn’t get any other opportunity. In December 2000, Sehwag got his second chance, and he wasn’t going to let go of this one.
In March 2001, he scored 58 off 54 runs and took three wickets as well. The result was his first man of the match award. In August the very same year, he started opening the match. With stellar performances, he cemented his team in the Indian squad.
At the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka, Sehwag won two Man of the Match awards. However, his performance in the 2003 Cricket World Cup was average. In the next few years, his performance in test cricket was superb, but he couldn’t score much in limited-overs.
After a brief dip in performance, he came back stronger. He continued blasting centuries in spite of inconsistency in form. Sehwag has featured in ICC’s World XI numerous times.
Curtains closed one of the most celebrated cricketing careers, as Sehwag announced his retirement from all formats of international cricket on 20th October 2015.
