Most people remember Virender Sehwag making his India debut against Australia in an ODI in Bengaluru during the memorable 2001 series – when he scored 58 runs and grabbed three wickets to be named Player of the Match – but few realize that Sehwag made his India debut against Pakistan in Mohali in 1999. Several Pakistan players, including Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Yousuf, and others, threw insults at the former India batsman, who was barely 21 at the time of his debut.
Talking with RJ Raunak in his new show, 13 Jawab Nahi, Sehwag shared: ‘I was around 20-21 years old then. When I went in to bat, the players like Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar, Mohammad Yousuf and all other Pakistan team members, welcomed me by abusing a lot, which I hadn’t even heard before.’
‘I understood a bit of Punjabi so I could figure the abuses that were hurled at me but I couldn’t do much because it was my first match and I was nervous myself. Some 20-25000 people had come to watch the match and I had never imagined playing in front of so many people. So back then, I couldn’t do much, but later when I became a player, I ensured I gave it back to them,’ Sehwag added.
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Sehwag had a fantastic batting record against Pakistan, accumulating 1276 runs at an average of 91.14 in Tests and hitting four hundreds. Sehwag scored 1071 runs in 31 One-Day Internationals, averaging 34.5 and included two centuries and six fifties. According to Sehwag, the reason for his fondness for Pakistani bowling stems from his maiden match against them.
‘When we went to Pakistan for the 2004 tour, by scoring the triple-century in Multan, I returned all their abuses and exacted revenge. Whenever I played against Pakistan, automatically my blood starts boiling and that’s why I always performed well against them and averaged well,’ the player further stated.
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