Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag

India

Full name Virender Sehwag
Born October 20, 1978, Delhi
Current age 28 years 131 days
Major teams India, ACC Asian XI, Delhi, ICC World XI, Leicestershire, Rajasthan Cricket Association President's XI
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Right-arm offbreak

Statsguru

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	52	87	3	4155	309	49.46	5485	75.75	12	12	612	42	44	0
ODIs	167	162	7	4833	130	31.18	5032	96.04	7	24	665	66	69	0
Twenty20 Int.	1	1	0	34	34	34.00	29	117.24	0	0	5	1	0	0
First-class	108	175	7	8434	309	50.20			26	30			102	0
List A	232	222	12	6602	130	31.43			8	39			91	0
Twenty20	7	7	0	120	34	17.14	92	130.43	0	0			1	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4	5	10
Tests	52	1286	674	14	3/33	4/71	48.14	3.14	91.85	0	0	0
ODIs	167	3356	2945	72	3/25	3/25	40.90	5.26	46.61	0	0	0
Twenty20 Int.	1	0	0	0	-	-	-	-	-	0	0	0
First-class	108	5485	2857	76	4/32		37.59	3.12	72.17		0	0
List A	232	4815	4082	111	4/17	4/17	36.77	5.08	43.37	1	0	0
Twenty20	7	84	70	7	3/14	3/14	10.00	5.00	12.00	0	0	0

Career statistics
Test debut	South Africa v India at Bloemfontein - Nov 3-6, 2001
Last Test	South Africa v India at Cape Town - Jan 2-6, 2007
ODI debut	India v Pakistan at Mohali - Apr 1, 1999
Last ODI	India v Sri Lanka at Visakhapatnam - Feb 17, 2007
Only Twenty20 Int.	South Africa v India at Johannesburg - Dec 1, 2006
First-class span	1997/98 - 2006/07
List A span	1997/98 - 2006/07
Twenty20 span	2003 - 2006/07

Profile

Virender Sehwag is a primal talent whose rough edges make him all the more appealing. By the time he had scored his first centuries in one-day cricket (off 70 balls, against New Zealand) and Test cricket (on debut, against South Africa, from 68 for 4), he was already eliciting comparisons with his idol Sachin Tendulkar. It is half true. Like Tendulkar, he is short and square with curly hair, plays the straight drive, backfoot punch and whip off the hips identically, but leaves Tendulkar in the shade when it comes to audacity.

Asked to open the innings in Tests on the tour of England in 2002, Sehwag proved an instant hit, cracking an 80 and a 100 in the first two matches. Regularly thereafter, he kept conjuring pivotal innings at the top of the order, none as significant as India's first 300 (which he bought up, characteristically, with a six), at Multan against Pakistan in early 2004.

Sehwag bowls effective, loopy offspin, and is a reliable catcher in the slips. He also once almost split the cricket world: when he was banned for a match by the ICC referee Mike Denness on grounds of excessive appealing, the Indian board wasn't prepared to listen, and even played an unofficial Test with South Africa to prove a point. When a compromise was finally reached, Sehwag was back to his merry ways.

Though he continued to dominate in the Test arena, Sehwag's one-day form dipped alarmingly - after January 2004, he went through a period of 60 matches where he averaged under 29. Despite his fitness levels dropping and his one-day spot being under threat - he was even dropped for the final one-dayer against England in April 2006 - Sehwag continued to sparkle in Tests, as shown by his magnificent 254 at Lahore. In June, he came excruciatingly close to scoring a century before lunch in the first day against West Indies in St Lucia, a feat never accomplished before by an Indian batsman.