Aakash Chopra recalled the experience of opening the batting in Test cricket with his Delhi teammate and friend, Virender Sehwag. Chopra said it was incredible how Sehwag could hit even good balls for boundaries and as a result, make his job a lot easier because then the opposition focused more on the explosive right-hander.
"The Indian batting order was so packed that there was only one slot open while batting alongside Virender Sehwag, and I took it up," Chopra, who played 10 Test matches for India and successfully opened with Sehwag during the difficult 2003-04 tour of Australia, told Sportskeeda.
"Viru was making my job a lot easier because he was hitting good balls for fours. When someone does that, then opposition keeps focusing on them," he added.
Chopra has always brushed aside suggestions that Sehwag didn't think a lot about his batting, that he was blindly following some 'see the ball and hit the ball' mantra, as people from the outside have often wrongly associated with the champion batsman.
"We ran really well between the stumps. Since he was hitting a lot of fours and sixes, it would have been natural if he (Sehwag) didn’t want to run much, but he wanted to take singles as soon as it was available," said the now renowned commentator and cricket analyst.
"Viru was absolutely outstanding; we go back a long way, we played school cricket together. I just wanted to enjoy from the best seat in the house but just leave it at that because there is only one Virender Sehwag."
Speaking about his own international career, which didn't go the distance despite his great feats at the domestic level either side of his India stint, Chopra admitted he perhaps didn't make his opportunities count to the fullest.
"I didn’t make the most of 10 opportunities that I got in Test matches," he said. "Out of the 10 Tests, I played six against Australia – the best team of the time. I played 2 against Pakistan in Pakistan and only 2 in India against New Zealand."
"If there was a slightly easier start, things may have looked different. I was lucky to part of 2 historic tours…against Australia 2003 (where we drew the series), the Pakistan series – we won the series."
"In the end, if I had scored more runs, converted those 30-40s into 100, things might have been different, and I could have lasted a little longer," Chopra added.
