'Here we go, another Sachin Tendulkar': Brett Lee waxes lyrical about 'cruel' India star

Legendary Australian fast bowler Brett Lee has heaped praise on former opening batter Virender Sehwag by comparing him to 'God of Cricket,' Sachin Tendulkar. When Lee watched Sehwag bat for the first time, he was almost in disbelief as he did not want to bowl to another 'Sachin Tendulkar'. The former Australian pacer explained how Sehwag's batting stance was extremely similar to that of Tendulkar when he played international cricket during his early days.

Brett Lee heaps praise on Virender Sehwag

While speaking on his own YouTube channel, Brett Lee TV, Brett Lee said, "You think of the word cruel. You think of the word swashbuckling. Think of the world as unpredictable, I think of none other than Virender Sehwag. He played with a smile on his face, with intent… the type of guy that would quite likely want to hit the first ball of a Test match for six… and he has done it.

The 45-year-old went on to add, "He is a guy that is so hard to bowl to because as I mentioned, the unpredictability. You would bowl that beautiful line and length thinking I’ve got him… ball shaping away. And that big smile, Sehwag would go BANG, hit you over cover for six."

After his initial praises for Sehwag, Lee compared him to the legendary Sachin Tendulkar by adding, "The guy that looked a little bit like Sachin Tendulkar when he was batting. And I thought 'here we go again. Another Sachin Tendulkar. If one wasn't enough, we've got another one and he is opening the batting.'

The former Australian pacer then went on to add that while his team had a plan for Sehwag, it did backfire badly on one occasion during an ODI match. "We in the Australian team had a ploy for Sehwag and even start the Test match with a third man, trying to suck him in to hit one down there. We tried that in an ODI match one day and he wacked it…absolutely nailed it out of the ground," added Lee.

While Tendulkar holds almost every batting record in both Test and ODI cricket, there has been no batter like Sehwag who took the game to the opposition from the get-go as Lee alluded to in his remarks. Sehwag in 2004 became the first Indian batter to smack a triple century in Tests and four years later, he repeated the feat. And that is not it, as the 43-year-old has also scored 293 and 254 runs in a single inning, among other 150-plus scores.