Sehwag bids goodbye to International cricket & IPL
India's all-time best opening batsman Virendra Sehwag known as the Nawab of Najafgarh among his followers announced his retirement from International cricket and the Indian Premier League. Sehwag was not a part of Indian team since he was dropped after the test match against Australia in March 2013. Though, he stipulated that he would play in Masters Champions League, a UAE-based Twenty20 tournament.
Taking a look at Sehwag's illustrious career
Virendra Sehwag made his ODI debut on 1 April 1999 v Pakistan, test debut on 3-6 November 2001 v SA and T20 debut on 1 December 2006 v South Africa. He also played county cricket for Leicestershire and plays in the Delhi daredevils team in IPL. The fastest triple-century in the history of international cricket was scored by Sehwag, 300 runs off 278 balls.
Match statistics
Sehwag has scored 8586 runs from 104 Test matches. He also scored 8273 runs, with 15 centuries including the second-highest individual score of 219 in ODIs. In 19 Twenty20 internationals, the right-hander made 394 runs.
16 years of genius cricket
He was best known for his aggressive style batting and was once described as the most exciting opener in the world. He was the only opener in history to have scored more than 7500 runs in both ODIs and tests. He was the only player apart from West Indian Chris Gayle to score a double century in ODIs and 2 triple centuries in tests.
Nawab's career not without controversies
Sehwag was given a one test ban by ICC Match referee Mike Denness for excessive appealing playing against South Africa in 2001. BCCI backed Sehwag asking for Mike's removal as match referee. ICC backed Mike and declared the next match between India and South Africa unofficial. Sehwag served the ban during the test match series played between India and England in December 2001.
Sehwag: A well awarded cricketer
Sehwag won the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World award twice, in 2008 and 2009 becoming the first Indian to do so. He was bestowed with the Arjuna Award, India's second-highest sporting award in 2002. He was also given the Padma Shri, India's 4th highest civilian award in 2010. Again in 2010, he became the ICC test cricketer of the year.
