Virender Sehwag opened the batting in Test cricket as if it were a one-day game and got away with it for more than a decade. He is the only Indian to score two Test triple centuries, he made the fastest triple hundred in Test history, and in 2011 he hit 219 against West Indies in a one-day international, at the time the highest score in the format.
Name: Virender Sehwag | Born: 20 October 1978, Najafgarh, Delhi | Sport: Cricket | Position: Right-handed opening batter, off-spin bowler
From Najafgarh to Mohali
Sehwag grew up in a joint family in Najafgarh, on the south-western edge of Delhi, and came through Delhi’s club and age-group cricket. His one-day debut, against Pakistan at Mohali on 1 April 1999, was brief and unhappy, and he did not get a regular run until 2001. When he did, during a tri-series in Sri Lanka, he hit a rapid century against New Zealand and kept his place.
A hundred on Test debut
He made his Test debut against South Africa at Bloemfontein on 3 November 2001, batting at number six, and scored 105 against an attack that included Shaun Pollock and Makhaya Ntini. Sourav Ganguly then moved him to the top of the order in Tests during the 2002 tour of England. It was a gamble: Sehwag had little interest in leaving the ball outside off stump and preferred to hit through the line from the first over. The gamble paid off. He scored a hundred at Trent Bridge as an opener on that tour and kept the position for most of the next decade.
The Sultan of Multan
In March 2004, in the first Test of India’s first full tour of Pakistan for 15 years, Sehwag scored 309 at Multan. It was the first triple century by an Indian in Tests, and he reached the milestone with a six. Four years later, against South Africa in Chennai, he made 319, reaching 300 in 278 balls, the fastest triple hundred in Test history. In December 2009, against Sri Lanka at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai, he came within seven runs of a third, out for 293 after reaching 250 in only 207 balls.
He was named Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the World for both 2008 and 2009, the first Indian to receive that award. His Test career ended with 8,586 runs at 49.34 from 104 matches, scored at a strike rate of 82.23, with 23 centuries.
A one-day double century
Sehwag’s one-day numbers are less spectacular than his Test record, partly because he so often went for his shots from the first ball. Even so, he scored 8,273 runs in 251 matches at more than a run a ball, with 15 hundreds. On 8 December 2011, at Indore, he made 219 from 149 balls against West Indies. It was only the second double century in men’s one-day internationals, after Sachin Tendulkar’s, and for a while the highest score in the format.
He was part of the side that shared the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002, played in the team that won the first World T20 in South Africa in 2007, and opened with Tendulkar in India’s 2011 World Cup win, often giving the side fast starts in the group matches.
Bowling, captaincy and retirement
His off-spin was more useful than his figures suggest and he often bowled to break partnerships. He captained Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League and later played for Kings XI Punjab. Form and fitness problems cost him his India place in 2013, and he announced his retirement from international cricket and the IPL on his 37th birthday, 20 October 2015. The ICC inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2023.
Career record and honours
- Tests: 104 matches, 8,586 runs, average 49.34, 23 hundreds, 32 fifties, highest score 319, strike rate 82.23
- One-day internationals: 251 matches, 8,273 runs, average 35.05, 15 hundreds, 38 fifties, highest score 219
- T20 internationals: 19 matches, 394 runs, highest score 68
- Two Test triple centuries: 309 against Pakistan (Multan, 2004) and 319 against South Africa (Chennai, 2008)
- Hundred on Test debut: 105 against South Africa, Bloemfontein, 2001
- Winner of the 2007 World T20 and the 2011 World Cup; joint winner of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy
- Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World: 2008 and 2009
- Arjuna Award: 2002
- Padma Shri: 2010
- ICC Cricket Hall of Fame: 2023
