India’s most destructive opener began with a one-run debut against Pakistan and went on to average 91 against them in Tests, with his best work done on Pakistani pitches in Multan and at the Gaddafi Stadium
LAHORE: Virender Sehwag, the India opener whose batting against Pakistan produced some of the most lopsided days in the rivalry’s Test history, turned 48 on Tuesday. For cricket followers in Lahore, the date brings back two very different memories: a debut in which Shoaib Akhtar dismissed him for one, and a January afternoon at the Gaddafi Stadium two decades ago when he made 254.
Sehwag, born on October 20, 1978, in Najafgarh on the edge of Delhi, retired from international cricket on his 37th birthday in 2015. In 104 Tests he scored 8,586 runs at an average of 49.34 and a strike rate of 82.23, figures that remain unusual for a format built on patience.
A forgettable start in Mohali
Sehwag’s first international appearance came against Pakistan in the 1999 Pepsi Cup, a triangular series that also featured Sri Lanka, during Pakistan’s tour of India. At Mohali on April 1, 1999, a Shoaib Akhtar delivery struck Sourav Ganguly on the chest early in India’s innings and forced him to retire hurt on five. Sehwag, pushed up the order, lasted two balls before Shoaib trapped him lbw for one. Ganguly later returned to make 57.
India were bowled out for 196. Asked to help defend it, Sehwag bowled three overs of off-spin and went for 35. Pakistan won by seven wickets with eight overs to spare, and later beat India by 123 runs in the final to take the trophy.
The debut cost him. Sehwag was not picked again for about 20 months and missed the 1999 World Cup in England. He returned against Zimbabwe in December 2000 and became a regular by mid-2001.
The Multan reply
When India toured Pakistan in 2004 for their first Test series there in almost 15 years, Sehwag got his answer in. In the first Test at Multan, against an attack of Shoaib, Mohammad Sami, Shabbir Ahmed, Abdul Razzaq and Saqlain Mushtaq, he made 309 off 375 balls with 39 fours and six sixes, the first Test triple century by an Indian. India won by an innings and 52 runs, and the innings earned Sehwag the nickname “Sultan of Multan”.
Pakistan hit back in the second Test, in Lahore, winning by nine wickets despite Sehwag’s 39 and 90, before India took the series 2-1 in Rawalpindi, where he made a duck.
Lahore, 2006
His most memorable innings for Lahore audiences came two years later. On a flat Gaddafi Stadium pitch in January 2006, after Pakistan piled up 679 for seven declared on the back of hundreds from Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf and a blistering 103 from Shahid Afridi, Sehwag replied with 254 off 247 balls. He and Rahul Dravid put on 410 for the first wicket, the highest partnership against Pakistan and in Pakistan, and just three short of the then world-record opening stand of 413.
The match was drawn after rain, as was the Faisalabad Test that followed. Pakistan then won decisively in Karachi, where Sehwag fell for five and four, to take the series 1-0. The Gaddafi Stadium, which has since been rebuilt and is preparing to host a tri-series this month, has not staged an India Test since.
The numbers against Pakistan
In nine Tests against Pakistan, Sehwag scored 1,276 runs at an average of 91.14, with four centuries: the 309 in Multan, the 254 in Lahore, 201 in Bangalore in 2005 and 173 in Mohali the same year. Only two other teams, South Africa and Sri Lanka, conceded more Test hundreds to him, with five each.
His record in Pakistan stood out even more. Across six Tests there he made 732 runs, an average of about 91, compared with roughly 54 in home Tests. Few leading batters have scored so much more heavily away from home than in their own country, and fewer still have done it in one of the toughest away venues for Indian teams.
Pakistani bowlers of that era tend to point out the other side of the ledger. Outside his two monumental innings, Sehwag’s scores in Pakistan were 39, 90, 0, 31, 5 and 4, and Pakistan won two of the six Tests he played there and drew two more.
A Test opener in an ODI batter’s clothing
Sehwag played every format the same way, but his record shows that Tests, not one-day cricket, were where he did most damage. He made 23 Test centuries, including a second triple century, 319 against South Africa in Chennai in 2008, and a 293 against Sri Lanka in Mumbai in 2009 that left him seven short of a third. Other big scores included 195 against Australia at Melbourne, 180 against the West Indies at Gros Islet, 173 against New Zealand in Ahmedabad and a double century against Sri Lanka in Galle.
In one-day internationals he scored 8,273 runs at a strike rate of 103 in 251 matches, with 15 centuries, six of them against New Zealand. He made 219 against the West Indies at Indore in 2011, then the highest ODI score, and opened India’s victorious 2011 World Cup campaign with 175 against Bangladesh in Dhaka. Two of his ODI hundreds came against Pakistan, including 119 at Karachi in the 2008 Asia Cup.
A rivalry that has gone quiet
Sehwag’s duels with Shoaib, both men later traded barbs as television pundits, belong to a period when India and Pakistan still played regular bilateral Test cricket. The two countries have not met in a Test since December 2007, and relations between the boards remain strained, with India’s women’s team refusing the Asia Cup trophy from the PCB chairman last month.
A generation of Pakistani fans has therefore grown up without seeing an India Test side in Lahore, even as the Gaddafi Stadium has cleared its international venue rating and Pakistan’s own Test bowlers keep setting records abroad. For older fans, Sehwag’s birthday is a reminder of the contests they miss: the debutant Shoaib sent back for one, and the visitor who spent a day and a half at the Gaddafi Stadium making sure nobody forgot him.
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