Former team India batter – turned commentator Aakash Chopra recently revealed during a chat show how Virender Sehwag, during their playing days would never hesitate to tell people/fellow teammates that he disliked them due to this particular reason(s).
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Such clean was his heart that people didn’t even get offended with his words, and neither did he care if they did. Once, when the then team India skipper Sourav Ganguly was not in some decent run-scoring form, Sehwag even reminded him that his place in the side might be under threat and that he’s not a guaranteed pick just because he’s the skipper.
Such was Sehwag’s personality, that he didn’t even spare the then Indian team coach John Wright, and went on to accuse him of favoritism.
Virender Sehwag once hilariously accused coach John Wright for treating him inferior to Sachin Tendulkar
During the chat show Chopra recounted a particular incident where Sehwag once tried to pull John Wright’s leg, by accusing him of being biased in favour of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar in the dressing room.
He went on to remark that the coach is treating him inferior to Tendulkar, and that he would notify this behavior of his to the BCCI president via a letter.
“He (Sehwag) was brilliant. Nobody took him badly because Viru was so honest. His honesty was so endearing, and he was often like ‘this is who I am, take it or leave it’. He has a heart of Gold, but whatever he felt, he would say it openly. He said ‘John, I will write a complaint against you, that you are treating me differently than Sachin. Why? Because Sachin is a great player? I’ll write to the BCCI president’,” Chopra hilariously remarked while describing Sehwag’s personality.
When Sehwag expressed his vulnerability against facing Brett Lee’s swing bowling
Earlier, Chopra even disclosed how while they were opening together during a Test match against Australia at Sydney, Sehwag explicitly mentioned that he might have issues facing Brett Lee who was managing to swing the ball considerably well during the innings.
“Tu khel le bhai. Tu reh uss taraf, mai reh raha hun iss taraf. Tu usko khel, Gillespie ko main khel lunga. Itni swing hogi to main jaa raha hun. Main Out ho jaunga, koi fayda nahi hai yahan rehne ka (Brother, you face him. You play from that end, I’ll stay at the other end. I’m not facing him if the ball’s swinging so much. I’ll get Out, there’s no use batting from this end),” remarked Chopra about Sehwag’s hesitancy to face Lee.
