Nawab of Najafgarh: Sehwag's profile ~ Cricket India

Virender Sehwag was born 20 October 1978, in Delhi. Sehwag affectionately known as Viru, the Nawab of Najafgarh, or the Zen master of modern cricket, is one of the leading batsmen in the Indian cricket team.

He developed a liking for the game of Cricket at quite an early age, and received his education at Arora Vidya School in Delhi where he started learning to play Cricket seriously under the guidance of his coach A.N. Sharma.

He started playing for the Delhi Cricket team in the year 1997-98, and played for North Zone in the Duleep Trophy tournament in the year 1998-99. In the year 1999 he was selected for the National Under-19 Cricket team of India, and was chosen for the National Cricket team 2 years later.

He played his first One Day International in 1999 and joined the Indian Test cricket team in 2001. In April 2009, Sehwag became the only Indian to be honored as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World for his performance in 2008, subsequently becoming the first player of any nationality to retain the award for 2009.

Sehwag holds multiple records including the highest score by an Indian player in a Test match that he achieved in a match against South Africa played at Chennai on 26th of March 2008. He scored 319 runs off just 278 balls in the match, which was also the fastest Triple Century in Test Cricket.

Sehwag is one of the three batsmen in the world who have scored 2 Triple Centuries in Test Cricket, which was also the fastest triple century in the history of international cricket (reached 300 off only 278 balls) as well as the fastest 250 by any batsman (in 207 balls against Sri Lanka on 3 December 2009 at the Brabourne stadium in Mumbai).

Sehwag also holds the distinction of being one of four batsmen in the world to have ever surpassed 300 twice in Test cricket, and the only one to score two triple centuries and take a five-wicket innings haul.

Sehwag smashed the fastest century ever scored by an Indian in ODI cricket, off just 60 balls in an ODI match against New Zealand on 11th of March 2009 at Hamilton.

Sehwag was appointed as vice-captain of the Indian team under Rahul Dravid in October 2005 but due to poor form, he was later replaced by V. V. S. Laxman in December 2006 as Test vice-captain. In January 2007, Sehwag was dropped from the ODI team and later from the Test team as well. During his term as vice-captain, Sehwag skippered the team in place of injured Dravid for 2 ODIs and 1 Test. Following his return to form in 2008 and the retirement of Anil Kumble, Sehwag has been reappointed as the vice-captain for both Tests and ODIs.

ODI Debut

The One Day International (ODI) Cricket career of Virender Sehwag began with an ODI match against Pakistan played in Chandigarh on 1st of April 1999, although he just faced 2 balls by Shoaib Akhtar and got LBW out after scoring a single run in this match. 2 years later, he scored 58 runs off 54 balls in an ODI match against Australia played in Bangalore to win his first Man of the Match award. He also took 3 wickets, giving away 59 runs in this match.

Test Debut

Sehwag debuted in Test Cricket with a Test match against South Africa played at Bloemfontein on 3rd of November 2001. He played an impressive 105 runs in the first innings and 31 runs in the second innings of the match, although he took no wickets and gave away 22 runs in the match.

Achievements:

First ever Indian to score 300 runs in a Test innings
Highest individual score by an Indian in Tests (309)
Highest-ever Test score at over a run-a-ball (254 off 247 balls against Pakistan)
Involved in the highest opening partnership for a Test played away from India (410 with Dravid).
Most Test runs in a single day by an Indian.
He is the third batsman in the history of Test cricket to score two triple centuries, alongside Australia's Sir Donald Bradman, and the West Indies' Brian Lara and Chris Gayle.
Second fastest ODI 50 by an Indian - a record, he shares with Rahul Dravid, Kapil Dev and Yuvraj Singh - when he took 22 balls against Kenya in 2001.
Two consecutive double century partnerships in a Test innings. He achieved this record, for the first two wickets in Chennai on 27–28 March 2008 (with Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid respectively). This was the first time in Test history that the first two wickets in an innings have resulted in double-century stands. He equaled this in the innings against Sri Lanka in Mumbai, combining with Murali Vijay and Dravid for the first and second wickets.
He is the first person in the history of test cricket to hit two triple centuries and take five wickets in a Test innings.

Awards

Arjuna Award in 2002.
Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World in 2008 and 2009.

Cricket India