Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag (, born 20 October 1978) is a former Indian cricketer who represented India from 1999 to 2013.

Widely regarded as one of the most destructive openers and one of the greatest batsman of his era, he played for Delhi Capitals in IPL and Delhi and Haryana in Indian domestic cricket.

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 made his debut for Delhi cricket team in first class cricket in the 1997–98 season.

He was selected to the North Zone cricket team for the Duleep Trophy the following 1998–99 season, ending fifth in the total runscoring list.

He played his first One Day International in 1999 and joined the Indian Test side in 2001.

He was included as an all-rounder in the Board President's XI team that played the touring Pakistan in February 1999.

He top-scored for his team in their first innings with 83-ball 66.

Sehwag stood fourth in the Duleep Trophy run-scoring list that year, including a 274, the highest score of the competition.

This was attained against South Zone at Agartala in just 327 balls, and followed a rapid 187 from just 175 in a Ranji Trophy match against Punjab.

He was then selected for the U-19 team which toured South Africa.

During his time with India, Sehwag was a member of the team that was one of the joint winners of the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, the winners of the 2007 T20 World Cup, and the winners of the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

During the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, Sehwag was the highest run scorer with 271 runs.

In 2023, he was inducted into ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

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 led 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 was reappointed as the vice-captain for both Tests and ODIs.

In April 2009, Sehwag became the first 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.

He worked as stand-in captain occasionally during absence of main captain of India, also worked as Vice-Captain for Indian squad.

He is former captain of Delhi Daredevils and Delhi Ranji Team.

Sehwag holds multiple records including the highest score made by an Indian in Test cricket (319 against South Africa 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).

Sehwag also holds the distinction of being one of four batsmen in the world to have ever surpassed 300 twice in Test cricket.

Sehwag has the highest career strike rate in Test matches among batsmen with minimum 3000 Test runs.

Sehwag's career strike rate in Test matches is 82.23.

In March 2009, Sehwag smashed what was until then the fastest century ever scored by an Indian in ODI cricket, from 60 balls.

By early 2009, Sehwag had reestablished himself as one of the best performing batsmen in ODI cricket.

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 retired from all forms of International cricket on 20 October 2015.

Now, he is serving as the member of the Anti Doping Appeal Panel of the National Anti Doping Agency under the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India.

Sehwag was born in the Jat family of a grain merchant.

He spent his childhood 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.

Early in his career he had a reputation for being an attacking batsman and his coach was Amar Nath Sharma.