Former India head coach and former Australia cricketer Greg Chappell has showered rich praise on “Indian genius” Virender Sehwag, saying the destructive opener terrorized opening bowlers throughout his career while describing him as “more than a kamikaze-style basher.”
Chappell, who was the India head coach from 2005 to 2007, also named Sehwag in his most exciting Test XI of the past 60 years as well as picked him as the best ball-striker he has ever seen while hailing the legendary Indian batsman for his uncanny ability to smash boundaries to all parts of the field.
In a column for the Sydney Morning Herald, Chappell wrote: “Indian genius Virender Sehwag terrorized opening bowlers throughout his career. Viru was the best ball-striker I have seen. His record of double and triple hundreds, though, shows that he was more than a kamikaze-style basher.”
He further added, “Once he summed up the opposition and conditions and found things to his liking, he toyed with opposition bowlers. He had an uncanny ability to smash boundaries to all parts of the field, but his great strength was square of the wicket on the off side.”
Meanwhile, the former India head coach also recalled an interesting conversation with Sehwag, who wasn’t known only for his swashbuckling batting and aggression but also his amazing sense of humor even during his playing days.
Chappell further recalled, “One day, I tried to persuade him to get into position to tuck the straight deliveries to the leg side, thereby compelling bowlers to target his off-stump strength. Rather provocatively, I asked, 'Are you scared of fast bowlers?”
He signed off by saying, “With his trademark cheeky grin, he replied, 'Sehwag is scared of fast bowlers, but fast bowlers are scared of Sehwag!' I cracked up.”
Noteworthy, Sehwag had an amazing international career scoring 8586 Test runs, 8273 ODI runs and 394 T20I runs for India from a total 374 games for his country between 1999 to 2013.
