Virender Sehwag names player who suggested his name to Sourav Ganguly for opener’s role – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Virender Sehwag, the man who revolutionised opening the batting in Test cricket, started his career in the middle order. In fact, he made his debut against South Africa in the middle order where he scored a century. However, he found a lot of success when he was asked to open the innings for India across formats and is still considered one of India’s greatest match-winners.

Sehwag reserved his best for Pakistan and his attacking strokeplay gave India the early advantage against the famed Pakistan bowling attack. Leading up to India’s clash with Pakistan in Asia Cup, Star Sports has been doing a build-up show where former players from both countries speak about their experiences and reveal interesting anecdotes from their careers. In one such video, Sehwag is in conversation with former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar where they speak about how they went about their business when they locked horns in the years gone by.

During the chat, Sehwag revealed the player who suggested India captain Sourav Ganguly to try the right-hander as an opener.

In this chat, Akhtar asked Sehwag, “Whose idea was it to make you open the batting?” Sehwag responded to this question saying, “It was Zaheer Khan’s idea. He was the one who suggested my name to Sourav Ganguly and he asked me to open the batting. Before this I used to bat in the middle order and when I faced you for the first time in 1999, I was a middle-order batter.”

Virender Sehwag went on to become one of the most prolific run scorers for India across all the three formats. In 104 Test matches, he scored 8586 runs at an average of 49.3 and with a strike rate of 82.2. He was the first triple centurion for India in Tests when he smashed 309 runs against Pakistan in Multan. In 251 ODIs, Sehwag scored 8273 runs at an average of 35 and with a staggering average of 104.3.

India will take on Pakistan in their Asia Cup fixture that is slated to be held in Dubai on August 28.