Virender Sehwag

Full Name: Virender Sehwag
Born: October 20, 1978, Delhi
Major teams: India, Delhi, ICC World XI, Leicestershire,
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Right-arm offbreak

Achievements:

* First ever Indian to score 300 runs in a Test innings
* Highest individual score by an Indian in Tests (309)
* Highest-ever Test score at over a run-a-ball (254 off 247 balls against Pakistan)
* Involved in the highest opening partnership for a Test played away from India (410 with Dravid)

Virender Sehwag, fondly known as Viru, is an Indian Cricket player and considered to be one of the best batsmen India has got. He is a right handed batsman and a casual Off Spin bowler. Sehwag has a number of records to his credit, including the highest score by an Indian player in a Test match that he achieved in a match against South Africa played at Chennai on 26th of March 2008. He scored 319 runs off just 278 balls in the match, which was also the fastest Triple Century in Test Cricket. Sehwag is one of the three batsmen in the world who have scored 2 Triple Centuries in Test Cricket, and scored the fastest ODI century by an Indian Cricketer in March 2009 off just 60 balls in an ODI match against New Zealand on 11th of March 2009 at Hamilton.

Early Life
Virender Sehwag was born on the 20th of October 1978 at New Delhi in a business family. He developed a liking for the game of Cricket at quite an early age, and received his education at Arora Vidya School in Delhi where he started learning to play Cricket seriously under the guidance of his coach A.N. Sharma.

He started playing for the Delhi Cricket team in the year 1997-98, and played for North Zone in the Duleep Trophy tournament in the year 1998-99. In the year 1999 he was selected for the National Under-19 Cricket team of India, and was chosen for the National Cricket team 2 years later.

One Day International (ODI) Debut
The One Day International (ODI) Cricket career of Virender Sehwag began with an ODI match against Pakistan played in Chandigarh on 1st of April 1999, although he just faced 2 balls by Shoaib Akhtar and got LBW out after scoring a single run in this match. 2 years later, he scored 58 runs off 54 balls in an ODI match against Australia played in Bangalore to win his first Man of the Match award. He also took 3 wickets, giving away 59 runs in this match.

Test Debut
Sehwag debuted in Test Cricket with a Test match against South Africa played at Bloemfontein on 3rd of November 2001. He played an impressive 105 runs in the first innings and 31 runs in the second innings of the match, although he took no wickets and gave away 22 runs in the match.

He is known for making huge scores, and the last 11 centuries he has scored have been over 150 runs, breaking Sir Donald Bradman’s record of scoring 7 centuries more than 150 runs in a row.

Overall Performance
In his overall Test Cricket career till April 2009, Sehwag has played 69 Test matches and has scored 5757 runs including 15 centuries and 18 half-centuries with an average of 50.06 runs and a highest score of 319 runs. He also took 29 wickets in these matches giving away 1265 runs, with an average of 43.62 runs.

Sehwag has also played 205 One Day International (ODI) matches, and has scored 6592 runs in these matches with an average of 34.33 runs and a highest score of 130 runs. He has managed to grab 84 wickets in ODI matches, giving away 3531 runs at an average of 40.58 runs.

Delhi Daredevils Captaincy
Virender Sehwag has been leading the Delhi Daredevils team in the Indian Premiere League 2009, as he was the Captain of the team last year too. Under his leadership, Delhi Daredevils have defeated Kings XI Punjab in the Twenty 20 match played on 19th of April 2009 at Cape Town by 10 wickets. Due to rains, the target for Delhi Daredevils had been limited to 54 runs from 6 overs, and they accomplished it in 4.5 overs. Sehwag contributed by scoring 38 runs (Not Out) off just 16 balls to get his team the victory in its first IPL match in the year 2009.