Virender Sehwag: Former India opener Virender Sehwag has opened up about Sachin Tendulkar’s influence in his life during his playing days. The 46-year-old said that the batting maestro taught him a lot about how to lead his life outside the field. He also revealed that Tendulkar introduced him to different food cuisines.
Sehwag also said that he followed Tendulkar like a shadow between 2001 and 2004-05. The two-time triple centurion said on “The Life Savers Show with Neha Bedi”:
“Sachin Tendulkar is my role model; he is like God to me because I started playing cricket after watching him play. He taught me a lot. Not just cricket, but also other aspects, such as how to behave in public, how to eat, and how to exercise.
“So from 2001 to around 2004-05, I followed him like his shadow. He was the first one who took me out to eat Chinese, Japanese, and Thai food.”
Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag became India’s preferred opening partnership in ODI cricket for a large part of the 2000s and early 2010s. The latter had earlier spoken about how the former had played a role in changing his mind about retiring from 50-over cricket.
Virender Sehwag feels playing in the IPL can create a route to wearing India jersey
Former India opening batter Virender Sehwag felt that there was a trend among the newer generation of players of wanting to play in the Indian Premier League (IPL) over playing for India. However, he felt the world’s premier T20 league offered a pathway for players to don the India jersey. He said:
“Yes, it is becoming a trend among the new generation of players. (Whether it is a healthy trend). You can look at it from this point of view that by playing in the IPL, you can create a route to playing for India. Many players like Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah have come after playing in the IPL. All of them caught the eye of others after playing in the IPL. Then they got to play for India. So that path is fine”.
The last decade and more has seen certain players make the transition from starting out in T20 cricket to playing Test cricket. Among Indian players, Jasprit Bumrah made his T20I debut in 2016 and his Test debut two years later in 2018. David Warner made his T20I debut in January 2009 but played his first Test match in December 2011.
