There is hardly any doubt about the batting prowess of the Indian cricket team of which Virender Sehwag was a part of. In fact, the batting line up was considered as one of the best in world cricket in both the formats of the game back then.
It boasted of the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and all of them were match-winners on their own but even then Sehwag found a place of his own in the team and is remembered for the impact he had on the opposition bowlers.
Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has now said that Sehwag always remained under the shadows of great players like Tendulkar and Dravid and never really got to be on his own.
Lauding Sehwag for his fearless style of play even in front of some of the world’s best fast bowlers like Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar and Wasim Akram, Latif labelled Sehwag an impactful player.
“He used to play to dominate. We are used to openers who were a bit circumspect at the beginning, gauging how the pitch is, who the bowler is whether (Glenn) McGrath, Brett Lee, Wasim Akram or Shoaib Akhtar. But Sehwag was someone who feared none. He was an impactful player, had a great influence in his team and players like him succeed in world cricket,” Latif said in a Youtube show called Caught Behind.
“Sehwag’s record speaks for him. He has 8 thousand plus runs in Test cricket. He is someone who has always remained under the shadows of other players. He played with Sachin, played with Rahul and remained under their shadow. If he was playing for any other country then he would’ve easily crossed 10 thousand runs, only one and a half thousand runs were remaining,” he added.
“Maybe his team had bigger names, bigger players but opponents were always wary of the impact that Sehwag could have on a game,” he concluded.