Virender Sehwag was born on 20 October 1978 in Delhi. Considered to be the most destructive right-hand batsman of all time, he was born to a family of Jats belonging to Haryana.
He attended Arora school but did not shine academically. He modeled his batting on his childhood idol Sachin Tendulkar’s style – a fact acknowledged by Sehwag himself. His build and appearance were, in fact, similar to Tendulkar. Although Sehwag played with minimal footwork, he compensated it with his gifted hand-eye coordination. He also was an occasional off-spinner.
Sehwag made his first-class debut for Delhi in the 1997–98 season and was selected to represent North Zone in the Duleep Trophy in the 1998–99 season. He became the fifth-highest scorer in that tournament. His consistency at first-class level caught the eye of national selectors. He, however, started his career as a middle-order batsman.
When Sehwag played his maiden ODI against Pakistan in April 1999, he managed to score only one. Following that performance, he had to wait for 20 more months to get another opportunity to play in an ODI.
But he announced his arrival on the international scene in August 2001 in Sri Lanka where India was playing a triangular series, also involving New Zealand. As Tendulkar was absent from the side owing to a foot injury, Sehwag was promoted to open the batting. Against New Zealand, he scored his maiden international century off 69 balls, helping India to qualify for that tournament.
With this performance, Sehwag cemented his place in the one-day team.
Nawab of Najafgarh, as he is also known, because of the locality he was born and raised in, earned his first Test cap in November 2001 against South Africa in Bloemfontein.
The high point of his Test career came when he scored 309 – the first Indian to score a triple century – against Pakistan in Multan in early 2004. For his cricketing performance in 2008, in April 2009, Sehwag became the first Indian to be named the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World.
One of his other standout knocks was his double century against Sri Lanka in 2008 in Galle, as he was the only Indian batsmen to negotiate the lethal spinners comfortably while his contemporaries, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and VVS Laxman, were all at sea against them throughout that series. He also became the fastest batsmen ever to score a triple century (278 balls).
In his Test career spanning 104 games, he scored 23 centuries, comprising six double centuries, including two triple centuries. His career aggregate was 8,586 runs, with an average of 49.34.
Sehwag, also fondly referred to as Viru, captained Delhi Daredevils in its first two editions. He featured in a total of 104 matches in the IPL where he scored two centuries.
In October 2015, he announced his retirement from all formats of international cricket.
He runs a school, Sehwag International School, which he started in 2011 in Jhajjar, Haryana. Students of this school apart from studying, can train and play sports.
