Virender Sehwag

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A hard-hitting middle-order batsman with an excellent temperament, who also is a useful off-spinner, Virender Sehwag's name is now on everybody's lips. The series against South Africa was an unforgettable one in the young man's career. After impressing in the one-dayers and following it up by scoring a debut Test hundred while giving Sachin Tendulkar excellent company in a glorious stand at Bloemfontein, Sehwag found himself dragged into the match-referee controversy along with his idol in the next Test at Port Elizabeth. The whole controversy ensured that he missed the first Test of the England series which was played at Mohali. But once he was back, he had managed to successfully brush it all aside and return to his free-flowing, ebullient self. An injury while fielding in the second Test against Zimbabwe put him out of cricket again for a brief while. There were fleeting glimpses of his destructive potential in the three one-dayers that he played in the West Indies, but England is where Sehwag would be hoping to prove, once and for all, that his is a talent that here is stay.

His disastrous debut against Pakistan at Mohali in the Pepsi Cup did not presage such an eventful career. After having got out for a single he was hammered for 35 runs in the three overs that he bowled. He was then shortlisted among the 19 probables for the 1999 World Cup in England but did not make the final squad. Sehwag has been a mainstay in the Delhi Ranji Trophy team since the 1998-99 season. A powerful hitter of the ball, he aggregated 745 runs during the 1998-99 Ranji Trophy season with three centuries and followed it up with 674 runs in the 1999-2000 edition of the competition.

Sehwag made a strong comeback to the Indian team during the Australia tour of India in 2000-01. In the first one-dayer at Bangalore, Sehwag helped himself to a quick half-century before scalping three crucial wickets to play a leading role in India's victory. Man of the Match in the first one-dayer, Sehwag was forced to miss the rest of the series with a fractured finger. Promoted to open the batting in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag hammered a 70-ball ton against the hapless Kiwis in a tri-series played in Sri Lanka. That innings made his reputation and secured his place in the Indian one-day team. With his debut hundred in the first Test at South Africa he then went on to confirm his status as the brightest young talent on the Indian cricketing horizon.