Former Pakistan captain and wicket-keeper batsman Rashid Latif recently praised the former Indian opener Virender Sehwag for maintaining fearless dominant batting in his career. According to Latif, Sehwag remained under the shadow of legendary Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid etc.. Otherwise, he would have easily crossed the 10,000 runs.
Virender Sehwag was one of the greatest openers in international cricket history. An explosive cricketer Sehwag never followed the conventional batting method during his entire international career, but still managed huge success in international cricket, including in the Test career. His fearless, aggressive batting not only always entertained the fans but also destroyed the confidence of his opposition players, especially the bowlers.
Praising the fearless batting style of the former Indian opener, Rashid Latif called Sehwag as an impactful player who had a significant influence in the team.
Latif said in a YouTube show, named Caught Behind, “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.”
Virender Sehwag’s record speaks for him: Rashid Latif
Sehwag played international cricket from 1999 to 2013 where he appeared in 104 Tests, 251 ODIs and 19 T20Is. The right-handed batsman scored 8586 Test runs (average 49.34), 8273 ODI runs (average 35.05) and 394 runs (average 21.88). During his career, Sehwag played important roles for India’s success, including winning the ICC World T20 2007, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 etc.
Latif believes that Sehwag should have scored 10,000+ runs. The former Pakistan wicket-keeper feels that the former Indian opener always remained under the shadow of the other contemporary top Indian batsmen like Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid etc.
Latif added, “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.”
Latif also said that the opponent players were always scared about Sehwag despite India having some other more prominent names in the batting line-up in that period.
He continued, “Maybe his team had bigger names, bigger players but opponents were always wary of the impact that Sehwag could have on a game.”
Rashid Latif played 37 Tests and 166 ODIs for Pakistan between 1992 and 2003.