Former India opener Virender Sehwag has called out Shoaib Akhtar’s action, saying the Pakistani pacer “used to jerk his elbow” and “knew he was chucking too”. Sehwag made the big statement during the third episode of ‘Home of Heroes’ on Sports18. The ex-India cricketer said that while it was easy to pick the ball when Brett Lee was bowling because his “hand came down straight,” he could never guess with Shoaib Akhtar as he didn’t know where the hand and ball would come from.
“Shoaib knows he used to jerk his elbow; he knew he was chucking too. Why would ICC ban him otherwise?” Sehwag said to Sports18. “Brett Lee’s hand came down straight, so it was easy to pick the ball. But with Shoaib, you could never guess where the hand and the ball will come from.”
“I never feared facing Brett Lee, but with Shoaib, I could not trust what he would do if I hit him twice to the fence. Maybe a beamer or a toe-crushing yorker,” added the former swashbuckling opener.
Sehwag’s performances against Pakistan in the longest format is nothing short of astounding. The right-hander has played nine Tests against Pakistan, scoring a whopping 1,276 runs at an average of 91.14. He has a triple century, two double tons and a hundred against Pakistan.
Sehwag also spoke about why he chose to score runs quickly, taking undue risks in Test cricket.
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“Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly all would score their centuries playing 150-200 balls. If I scored hundreds at the same rate, no one would remember me. I had to score runs faster than them to create my identity,” said the former India cricketer.
Overall, Sehwag has scored 8,536 runs in 104 Tests. He has also played 251 ODIs, scoring 8,273 runs while in 19 T20Is, he has 394 runs.
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