“Shoaib knows he used to jerk his elbow”: When Virender Sehwag accused Shoaib Akhtar of chucking while bowling in international cricket

Virender Sehwag and Shoaib Akhtar were two of the most fiercest competitors during their international careers. Akhtar has admitted a lot of times that he loved bowling against India as they had some brilliant batters, and Sehwag was definitely one of them.

In an Indian team, where there were players like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, Sehwag was the one who stood out differently. The Indian right-handed batter was famous for his aggressive approach, and he took the responsibility to take bowlers to the cleaners.

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Both Akhtar and Sehwag are retired professionals now, but they are still very famous for their frank opinions on social media. The duo of Akhtar and Sehwag have indulged in quite a few Twitter wars as well and fans just love them. In an interview recently, Sehwag put a serious allegation on the Pakistani pacer.

Virender Sehwag accused Shoaib Akhtar of chucking while bowling

Virender Sehwag once accused Shoaib Akhtar of chucking during his international career. He said that even Akhtar knew that he used to jerk his elbow while bowling which made the job of the batters a lot more difficult. Sehwag cited the example of Australian pacer Brett Lee as well.

Sehwag said that Lee’s hand used to come down straight, whereas a batter could never guess where Akhtar’s hand will come from. The Sultan of Multan said that he never feared facing Lee, but the same was not the case with Akhtar.

“Shoaib knows he used to jerk his elbow: he knew he was chucking too. Why would the ICC (International Cricket Council) ban nim otherwise?” Sehwag said on Sports18 Home of Heroes.

“Brett Lee’s hand came down straight, so it was easy to pick up the ball. But with Shoaib [Akhtar], you could never guess where the hand and the ball will come from. I never feared facing Brett Lee, but with Shoaib, could not trust what he would do if hit him twice to the fence. Maybe a beamer or a too-crushing yorker.”

Sehwag said that Shane Bond was the toughest bowler he ever faced in his career. He said that Bond has the ability to swing the ball inwards even if the ball is pitched outside the off stump.