Gautam Gambhir reveals Virender Sehwag's logic for not taking strike when opening with him

Former Indian cricketers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag formed a destructive opening pair for India during their playing days. The two batsmen ably complemented each other’s batting at the top of the order as evidenced from their many match-winning opening stands. Quite recently, Gautam Gambhir praised Virender Sehwag’s batting style and his attacking mindset during an interactive session on Star Sports’ show Cricket Connected.

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‘Virender Sehwag most successful Indian opener after Sunil Gavaskar’ – Gautam Gambhir

During the interaction, Gautam Gambhir said that Virender Sehwag never considered himself as an opening batsman, which is why he refused to take strike off the first ball of the innings. Gambhir later revealed that he “had to face the fire” up front because of his batting partner’s opinion of himself. The left-handed batsman talked about Virender Sehwag’s two Test triple centuries while opening the innings and described the ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’ as the “most successful Indian opener after Sunil Gavaskar”.

Gautam Gambhir also said that he and Virender Sehwag used to discuss “everything apart from the bowlers” prior to the beginning of the innings. He stated that his ex-Delhi teammate was an impactful player whose mindset can never be copied. Gambhir further praised the 104-Test veteran by saying his run-scoring spree made an impact even in Test matches.

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Virender Sehwag on taking strike while opening with Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly

Despite Gautam Gambhir’s recent claims about Virender Sehwag not wanting to take strike first-up, the attacking right-hander frequently faced the first ball of the innings while opening alongside his former teammates Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly. In May 2017, at the inauguration of the Cricket Beyond Technique in Bengaluru, Sehwag revealed reasons why he took strike while batting. He said that he took an advice of former cricketer Arun Kumar, with whom he shared the dressing room during their age-group level days.

The 2011 World Cup-winning player mentioned that Arun Kumar often told him to face more balls in the beginning in order to succeed in the powerplay overs. Virender Sehwag admitted to applying the same advice in international cricket. He also jokingly said that he “became famous” because he successfully denied first-ball strike to the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.

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Image credit: PTI