Sachin Tendulkar Said “Will Hit You With Bat If…”: Virender Sehwag Reveals Mid-pitch Talk During Multan Test vs Pakistan

Virender Sehwag was a genius who made people sit up and take note of his unorthodox, yet highly effective batting. His carefree nature along with solid hand-eye coordination meant that he scripted several memorable innings for the Indian cricket team. He was part of India’s 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 World Cup-winning teams. He played 104 Tests (8586 runs), 251 ODIs (8273 runs) and 19 T20Is (394 runs). He played his last match for India in March 2013 against Australia in a Test.

He had a unique trait, unlike any other batter. While most other batters used to go into a shell while batting in the 90s, Sehwag did the exact opposite.

“I used to play tennis ball cricket where my mindset was to hit more runs through boundaries. I played with the same template in international cricket and used to calculate how many boundaries I need to score a century. If I am on 90 and to reach 100 if I take 10 balls then the opposition has 10 balls to get me out, which is why I used to go for boundaries and gave them only two balls to stop me from reaching the triple-figure mark. The risk percentage rate dropped from 100 to 20,” Sehwag said on News18 Chaupal.

Sehwag recalled incidents when he went for big hits as he was approaching important landmarks, and the results were contrasting. And one of them resulted in a funny conversation with India legend Sachin Tendulkar.

“I can recall the incident, we were in Australia and I hit Simon Katich for a couple of sixes to reach 195 and went for another one to reach the 200 but I got dismissed. Unfortunately. We lost that Test match. During the Multan Test against Pakistan I hit 6-7 sixes while reaching the 100-run mark, then Sachin Tendulkar came into bat and he said if you hit a six now then I will hit you bat,” Sehwag said.

“I asked why? Then he told me, we lost the Test versus Australia because you went for six. I didn’t hit a six from 120 to 295 runs and then I told him that I will hit a six now to complete the triple century. Sachin said, ‘Are you mad? No one has hit a triple century for India.’ I replied no one has scored 295 also and I stepped out to hit Saqlain Mushtaq for a six and reach 300. Sachin Tendulkar was happier than me after that.”