One of the many reasons to remember the greatness of former India batter Virender Sehwag is him taking a whole new job 28 months after the commencement of his international career. Having already experienced a year-long delay to his first match for India, Sehwag had to wait for two more years before breaking through at the highest level.
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Sehwag, who first played for India in an ODI against Pakistan in April 1999, batted for a total of nine times before being asked to open the batting by then-captain Sourav Ganguly. Although the right-handed batter had provided glimpses of his potential by scoring a maiden international half-century against Australia in March 2001, perhaps no one had expected him to achieve all that he ended up achieving as a opener in the subsequent years.
Virender Sehwag Began Opening For India After Striking A Deal With Sourav Ganguly
During an interaction with veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai in 2015, the day Sehwag had announced his retirement on his 37th birthday, Ganguly had revealed the reason he had asked him to open the Indian innings during Coca-Cola Cup tri-series 2001 in Sri Lanka.
During India’s first two matches of the series against New Zealand and Sri Lanka respectively, India had played the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Amay Khurasiya and Ganguly as openers in the absence of legendary Sachin Tendulkar. Without much success with the two, skipper Ganguly had then decided to have a conversation with Sehwag to persuade him to open the innings. Having not opened ever before, Sehwag was reluctant to accept the new role and asked for some time to respond.
The next morning, Sehwag had surprisingly come up with a deal that he would only open the innings if his place in the side was safe despite unsuccessful returns. Ganguly, who knew what he was doing, agreed.
“I came one fine evening and asked him, ‘Why don’t you open?’. He said, ‘I’ve never done that.’ I said, ‘Give it a try. If it works, it works, if it doesn’t work, he’ll still have a place in the middle order.’ He said, ‘Fine! Give me tonight, I’ll let you know tomorrow morning.’ And the first thing he asked me the next morning was, ‘What happens if I fail?’. I said, ‘Don’t worry, as I said, you’ll have a place in the middle order.'”
While he couldn’t make a memorable mark during the first three matches as opener in the very same series, he hit a 70-ball century against the Kiwis during the match before the final in Colombo.
While Ganguly had partnered Tendulkar right at the top during the next series, he later took turns with the latter to make sure Sehwag would open the innings in ODIs thereupon. Ultimately, the Sehwag-Tendulkar pair had went on to become one of the most successful opening batting pairs in the format as a result of Ganguly sacrificing his opening batting position.
A few years later, Ganguly had also made sure to sacrifice his No.3 batting position for former India captain MS Dhoni. Unlike Sehwag, Dhoni had smashed a maiden international ton right away on his promotion day and the rest, as they say, is history.
It is worth of a mention that akin Ganguly, former India batter Gautam Gambhir had also heaped words of praises for Sehwag the day he had retired, labelling him as India’s greatest opener due to the sheer “impact” he created.
Virender Sehwag Has Scored Most Runs As An Indian Opener
A primary reason which validates the aforementioned adulation is the fact that Sehwag is the highest run-scorer among Indian openers. Although greats such as Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar have more runs than him, what sets Sehwag apart is him opening the batting across formats.
It is to be noted that Sehwag is the only opening batter to have scored more than 7,500 runs in ODIs and Tests. While he scored 8,207 Test runs (170 innings) at the position, he amassed 7,518 runs (212 innings) in ODIs.
Furthermore, what defines Sehwag’s legacy is the fact that his strike rate of 104.72 makes him the only opening batter with a strike rate in excess of 100 among Top 30 leading ODI run-scorers. As for the Test format, he is the only Indian opener apart from Gavaskar to average in excess of 50.
