The former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag has often been considered one of the most destructive batters in world cricket. Still, even the best players go through bad patches, and the former cricketer recalls how skipper MS Dhoni dropped him from the playing XI, which prompted retirement thoughts.
Former Indian captain MS Dhoni was known to have made some tough calls, which led to India’s rise under his wing after the humiliating exit from the 2007 ICC Cricket World Cup, as India lost matches against Bangladesh as well. The captaincy was handed to MS Dhoni from Rahul Dravid, and he gave immediate results.
Dhoni turned India’s fortunes with the Commonwealth Bank Series, where they won the tri-series, defeating the mighty Aussies on their soil.
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He further formed a team comprising inexperienced lads and won the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup, and the futuristic skipper built on to a strong team for the 2011 World Cup and ended India’s 28-year-long drought in the competition.
Virender Sehwag blames MS Dhoni for prompting his early retirement thoughts
The former Indian team opener, Virender Sehwag, has accused MS Dhoni of being the reason behind his considering early retirement from one-day international cricket. He revealed how he was dropped from the team after a set of failures during the Commonwealth Bank Series back in 2007-08.
MS Dhoni was the skipper of India, and the young skipper made several such controversial yet effective decisions, which not only led India to wins but also changed the fortunes of many cricketers, as they made stronger comebacks.
“In the 2007-08 series, when we were in Australia, I played the first three matches of the Commonwealth Bank Series, and then MS Dhoni dropped me from the side. I wasn’t picked for a while after that. Then I felt that if I can’t be a part of the playing XI, then there was no point in my playing ODI cricket,” said Sehwag on Padamjeet Sehrawat’s YouTube channel.
Sachin Tendulkar convinced Sehwag to think otherwise
Sehwag was paired alongside Sachin Tendulkar at the top of India’s batting order, as Sourav Ganguly demoted himself down the order to hand Sehwag an opening spot, despite the wide-scale success of the Tendulkar and Ganguly duo for India.
When Sehwag was dropped, he, with the thought of retirement, had approached the great Sachin Tendulkar for advice, and the legend helped reinstate self-belief in the destructive and fearless batter.
“Then I went to Tendulkar and said, ‘I am thinking of retiring from ODIs,'” revealed Sehwag.
He (Tendulkar) said, ‘No, I went through a similar phase in 1999-2000, where I felt I should leave cricket. But that phase came and went. So, you are going through a trough, but it will pass. Don’t make any decision when you are emotional.”
“Give yourself some time and 1-2 series, and then take a call. When that series ended, I played in the next series and made a lot of runs. I played in the 2011 World Cup, and we won the World Cup as well.”
Virender Sehwag’s decorated International Career
Virender Sehwag made his debut in One-Day cricket back in 1999 against his favourite opposition and archrivals, Pakistan, while making his Test debut two years later in 2001 against South Africa.
Sehwag would undoubtedly be one of the most destructive white-ball batters, but his proficiency in red-ball cricket is unmatchable, as he scored runs at an insane rate in the longer format as well. He is the only Indian batter with 2 triple centuries in Test cricket.
Sehwag amassed 8586 runs, averaging 49.34 in 104 Tests in his career. He was also picked as the ICC Test Player of the Year in 2010 for his remarkable 1282 runs in 10 matches, with 6 centuries. In 251 ODIs, the batter scored 8273 runs and had a career strike rate over 104.
Sehwag completed 38 centuries and 70 half-centuries in his career and was the second batter after Sachin Tendulkar to score a double century in ODI cricket.
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