The International Cricket Council (ICC) recently inducted India’s Virender Sehwag, Diana Edulji, and Sri Lanka's Aravinda de Silva into the ICC Hall of Fame Class of 2023 to honor their contributions to the game of cricket.
Sri Lanka’s 1996 World Cup winner Aravinda de Silva, former Indian women’s cricket team’s captain Diana Edulji, and legendary Indian batter Virender Sehwag were number 110, 111, and 112 inductees into the ICC Hall of Fame respectively.
Speaking at the ICC Hall of Fame celebration, Sehwag, who is known for his straightforward remarks and humor, said that his induction into the ICC Hall of Fame has happened "too late".
“I think, I am too late,” quipped Sehwag when Ian Bishop asked him to share his thoughts on being inducted into the ICC Hall Of Fame.
The 2011 World Cup winner further revealed that it was captain Sourav Ganguly, but former pacer Zaheer Khan who suggested him to open for Team India.
The former opener continued, “Everybody thinks it was Sourav Ganguly that thought of making him open the innings but it was Zaheer (Khan), who came up with that suggestion first. He told Ganguly to make me open the innings.”
Sehwag also said that he always believed in the philosophy of "see the ball, hit the ball" as he was talking about the batting approach that brought him success in his 14-year international career.
He added, “I was not somebody who believes in watching the ball, playing the ball. There were players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and VVS Laxman, all legends who were doing that. So, I had to be different from them and that is also the reason why I never thought of changing my style of play.”
Sehwag also opened up about the time when he was dropped from the Indian team around 2007.
He signed off by saying, “Here was a guy who has scored a triple hundred, was sitting at home and watching it on TV players scoring 30-40 runs in the match. I missed 10-11 matches. I have to thank Anil Kumble for bringing me back into the team.”
Notably, Sehwag amassed 8,586 runs from 104 Tests at an average of 49.34 and also took 40 wickets during his Test career. He has also 8,273 runs for India in ODIs. He remains one of the four batters to score two triple tons in Tests. He was the first captain to score an ODI double ton as well.
(With ICC/PTI Inputs)
