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Virender Sehwag (born 20 October 1978) is an Indian cricketer. An aggressive right-handed opening batsman and a part-time right-arm off-spin bowler, he played his first One Day International in 1999 and joined the Indian Test team in 2001. In April 2009, Sehwag became the only Indian to be honoured as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World for his performance in 2008, subsequently becoming the first player of any nationality to retain the award for 2009.
Sehwag holds multiple records including the highest score made by an Indian in Test cricket (319 against South Africa at at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai), which was also the fastest triple century in the history of international cricket (reached 300 off only 278 balls) as well as the fastest 250 by any batsman (in 207 balls against Sri Lanka on 3 December 2009 at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai). His other innings of 309 and 293 are also the second and third best by any Indian player. Sehwag also holds the distinction of being one of four batsmen in the world to have ever surpassed 300 twice in Test cricket, and the only one to score two triple centuries and take a five-wicket innings haul. In March 2009, Sehwag smashed what was till then the fastest century ever scored by an Indian in ODI cricket, from 60 balls. On 8 December 2011, he hit his maiden double century in ODI cricket, against West Indies, becoming the second batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to reach the landmark. His score became the highest individual score in ODI cricket – 219 off 149 balls which was later bettered by Rohit Sharma – 264 off 173 balls on 13 November 2014. He is one of only two players in the world to score a double hundred in ODI and a triple hundred in Test Cricket, the other being Chris Gayle.
Sehwag was appointed as vice-captain of the Indian team under Rahul Dravid in October 2005 but due to poor form, he was later replaced by V. V. S. Laxman in December 2006 as Test vice-captain. In January 2007, Sehwag was dropped from the ODI team and later from the Test team as well. During his term as vice-captain, Sehwag skippered the team in place of injured Dravid in 2 ODIs and 1 Test. Following his return to form in 2008 and the retirement of Anil Kumble, Sehwag has been reappointed as the vice-captain for both Tests and ODIs. By early 2009, Sehwag had reestablished himself as one of the best performing batsmen in ODI cricket.
Sehwag was born in a Jat family from Haryana. The son of a grain merchant, Sehwag spent his childhood in a bungalow in a joint family, with siblings, uncles, aunts and sixteen cousins. Though now settled in New Delhi, the Sehwag family hails from Haryana. Sehwag was the third of four children born to father Krishan and mother Krishna Sehwag, with two older sisters Manju and Anju, and younger brother Vinod. His father attributes his interest in cricket to a toy bat which he was given when he was seven months old. He attended Arora Vidya School in Delhi, and pestered his parents to let him play cricket, on the basis that he was not academically gifted. His father tried to end his career when he broke a tooth as a child in 1990, but Sehwag evaded the ban with the help of his mother.Later he attended Jamia Milia Islamia for graduation.
Sehwag married Aarti Ahlawat in April 2004 under heavy security cover in a widely publicised wedding hosted by Arun Jaitley, the then Union law minister of India, at his residence. The couple have two sons, Aryavir, born on 18 October 2007 and Vedant, born in 2010.
Sehwag's aggressive batting has found success at the top of the batting order. He has scored centuries (100 or more runs) on 22 occasions in Test cricket and in 15 One Day International (ODI) matches but is yet to score a century in a Twenty20 international. In Tests, Sehwag has scored centuries against all the Test-cricket playing nations except Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and is sixth on the list of leading Test century makers for India. In 2001, he became the eleventh Indian player to score a century on Test debut, with 105 runs against South Africa. His centuries have been scored at fourteen cricket grounds, eight of which were outside India. He has made six scores of 200 runs or more, the most by an Indian batsman, of which a record three have come against Pakistan. Sehwag is the only Indian to have scored a triple century (300 or more runs), and has done so twice—309 against Pakistan in Multan in 2004 and 319 against South Africa in Chennai in 2008, the later being the fastest triple century in Test cricket with 300 coming up off just 278 balls. In ODIs, Sehwag's maiden century was made against New Zealand at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo in 2001. His highest score of 219, the highest ODI score ever, was made against the West Indies at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. He has been dismissed five times in the nineties.
Awards
Sehwag holds multiple records including the highest score made by an Indian in Test cricket (319 against South Africa at at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai), which was also the fastest triple century in the history of international cricket (reached 300 off only 278 balls) as well as the fastest 250 by any batsman (in 207 balls against Sri Lanka on 3 December 2009 at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai). His other innings of 309 and 293 are also the second and third best by any Indian player. Sehwag also holds the distinction of being one of four batsmen in the world to have ever surpassed 300 twice in Test cricket, and the only one to score two triple centuries and take a five-wicket innings haul. In March 2009, Sehwag smashed what was till then the fastest century ever scored by an Indian in ODI cricket, from 60 balls. On 8 December 2011, he hit his maiden double century in ODI cricket, against West Indies, becoming the second batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to reach the landmark. His score became the highest individual score in ODI cricket – 219 off 149 balls which was later bettered by Rohit Sharma – 264 off 173 balls on 13 November 2014. He is one of only two players in the world to score a double hundred in ODI and a triple hundred in Test Cricket, the other being Chris Gayle.
Sehwag was appointed as vice-captain of the Indian team under Rahul Dravid in October 2005 but due to poor form, he was later replaced by V. V. S. Laxman in December 2006 as Test vice-captain. In January 2007, Sehwag was dropped from the ODI team and later from the Test team as well. During his term as vice-captain, Sehwag skippered the team in place of injured Dravid in 2 ODIs and 1 Test. Following his return to form in 2008 and the retirement of Anil Kumble, Sehwag has been reappointed as the vice-captain for both Tests and ODIs. By early 2009, Sehwag had reestablished himself as one of the best performing batsmen in ODI cricket.
Sehwag was born in a Jat family from Haryana. The son of a grain merchant, Sehwag spent his childhood in a bungalow in a joint family, with siblings, uncles, aunts and sixteen cousins. Though now settled in New Delhi, the Sehwag family hails from Haryana. Sehwag was the third of four children born to father Krishan and mother Krishna Sehwag, with two older sisters Manju and Anju, and younger brother Vinod. His father attributes his interest in cricket to a toy bat which he was given when he was seven months old. He attended Arora Vidya School in Delhi, and pestered his parents to let him play cricket, on the basis that he was not academically gifted. His father tried to end his career when he broke a tooth as a child in 1990, but Sehwag evaded the ban with the help of his mother.Later he attended Jamia Milia Islamia for graduation.
Sehwag married Aarti Ahlawat in April 2004 under heavy security cover in a widely publicised wedding hosted by Arun Jaitley, the then Union law minister of India, at his residence. The couple have two sons, Aryavir, born on 18 October 2007 and Vedant, born in 2010.
Sehwag's aggressive batting has found success at the top of the batting order. He has scored centuries (100 or more runs) on 22 occasions in Test cricket and in 15 One Day International (ODI) matches but is yet to score a century in a Twenty20 international. In Tests, Sehwag has scored centuries against all the Test-cricket playing nations except Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, and is sixth on the list of leading Test century makers for India. In 2001, he became the eleventh Indian player to score a century on Test debut, with 105 runs against South Africa. His centuries have been scored at fourteen cricket grounds, eight of which were outside India. He has made six scores of 200 runs or more, the most by an Indian batsman, of which a record three have come against Pakistan. Sehwag is the only Indian to have scored a triple century (300 or more runs), and has done so twice—309 against Pakistan in Multan in 2004 and 319 against South Africa in Chennai in 2008, the later being the fastest triple century in Test cricket with 300 coming up off just 278 balls. In ODIs, Sehwag's maiden century was made against New Zealand at the Sinhalese Sports Club, Colombo in 2001. His highest score of 219, the highest ODI score ever, was made against the West Indies at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. He has been dismissed five times in the nineties.
Awards
- Arjuna Award (2002)
- Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World 2008, 2009
- ICC Test Player of the Year 2010
- Padma Shree 2010
Records
- Highest individual score in history in an ODI match 219 against West Indies on 8 December 2011 at Indore, surpassing previous record by Sachin Tendulkar (200)*. This record is no longer held by him it has been surpassed by Rohit Sharma by making 264 runs against Srilanka on 13 November 2014.
- Fastest 250 in Test cricket in terms of balls faced .
- Fastest 300 in Test cricket in terms of balls faced .
- Most Test runs in a single day by an Indian. Sehwag made 257 in a day against SA in Chennai. He surpassed this in making 284 in a day against Sri Lanka. The latter was the second consecutive innings in which India scored more than 400 runs in a single day in Tests. Sehwag also made a century at faster than a run a ball on the previous occasion.
- Only Indian batsman to have scored two triple centuries in Test cricket. He is one of the four batsman in the history of Test cricket to score two triple centuries, alongside Australia's Sir Donald Bradman, and the West Indies' Brian Lara and Chris Gayle.
- Second fastest century in ODI cricket by an Indian – 100 runs off 60 balls against New Zealand in 2009, after Virat Kohli – 100 runs off 52 balls against Australia in 2013.
- Second fastest ODI 50 by an Indian. record, he shares with Rahul Dravid, Kapil Dev and Yuvraj Singh – when he took 22 balls against Kenya in 2001
- Six double centuries – the first three of which came against Pakistan. Greg Chappell and Thilan Samaraweera are the other players to have scored multiple double centuries against Pakistan . Sehwag and Tendulkar are the only Indians to have made six Test double centuries.
- Highest score by an Indian batsman in Test cricket. He first achieved this when he scored 309 against Pakistan in Multan in 2004, and bettered his previous record in March 2008 at Chennai against South Africa by scoring 319.
- Fastest triple century: His second triple century scored at Chennai on 27–28 March 2008 against South Africa was the fastest in terms of balls faced by any batsman (off 278 balls).
- Consecutive 150+ scores in Test cricket: He holds the record for consecutive test hundreds converted to scores of 150+, at 11.
- He is one of the only five players to have scored more test hundreds than test fifties (15c/14f), along with Don Bradman (29c/13f), Mohammad Azharuddin (22c/21f), Matthew Hayden (30c/27f) and Kevin Pietersen(13c/11f) as on 7 August 2008
- Two consecutive double century partnerships in a Test innings. He achieved this record, for the first two wickets in Chennai on 27–28 March 2008 (with Wasim Jaffer and Rahul Dravid respectively). This was the first time in Test history that the first two wickets in an innings have resulted in double-century stands. He equalled this in the innings against Sri Lanka in Mumbai, combining with Murali Vijay and Dravid for the first and second wickets.
- He is the first person in the history of test cricket to hit two triple centuries and take five wickets in a Test innings.
- He had launched the first five of India's innings in 2011 World Cup by hitting the first ball for four. The suffering bowlers were Shafiul Islam, Jimmy Anderson, Boyd Rankin, Mudassar Bukhari and Dale Steyn.