Virender Sehwag made his India debut against Pakistan and was out for a duck against Shoaib Akhtar on April Fool’s Day in 1999. Nonetheless, he wasn’t in the mood to face another failure as he toured Pakistan in 2004. Although his ODI series was off, he was hellbent on making the most of his chances in the three-match Test series where he went on to score a triple hundred (309) at Multan.
Reminiscing about that iconic inning which perhaps established him as one of the top batters in Test cricket, Sehwag recalled how he dealt with Pakistan opening bowlers. But before that he did recall how people in the commentary box and in the media had questioned his Test credentials.
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“My 309-run knock at Multan is my favourite memory from India vs Pakistan rivalry, because no one expected that a player like Sehwag, an opener could score 300. People were saying… when I was playing, the media used to write, the commentators used to say that Sehwag is not Test player, he cannot make big runs this and that,” Star Sports uploaded a video of Sehwag as saying on their show ‘Frenemies’ ahead of Asia Cup 2022.
But here comes the kicker. After he dealt with the likes of Akhtar and Mohammad Sami, he went onto face the likes of Shabbir Ahmed and Abdur Razzaq whom he went to term as ‘spinners.’ It must be said that after facing the express pace of Akhtar, the likes of Ahmed and Razzaq could have felt like slow ball bowlers, but spinner sounds too extreme.
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“I had this fear that the ball is new, the wicket is fresh. Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Sami are both express bowlers. Shoaib was bowling around 155 kph and Sami was constantly clocking 145. But once both of their spells got over, it became easier for me because when Shabbir Ahmed and Abdul Razzaq – those two pacers came to bowl, it felt like I was facing spinner. So once I played out that 12-over spell from Shoaib and Sami, my confidence peaked,” he added.
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