Former India batsman Virender Sehwag has surprised many by recently naming a former Pakistan star as Asia’s best middle-order batsman. Time and again, one has seen the legendary batsman not wasting a single opportunity to taunt Pakistan and their cricketers.
The outspoken cricketer just loves to have some fun at the expense of Pakistani cricketers. But in a recent interview, he lavished praise on former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq and hailed him as Asia’s best middle-order batsman. Virender Sehwag went on to snub his idol and former teammate Sachin Tendulkar to call Inzamam the best.
Virender Sehwag shared the dressing room with some legendary middle-order batsmen and also played against some of world class players. The likes of Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Mohammad Yousuf, Younis Khan are some of the big names who played in the middle-order while Sehwag was active. However, none of them managed to impress him as much as Inzamam did.
“Everyone talks about Sachin Tendulkar but Inzamam-Ul-Haq is Asia’s biggest middle-order batsman. See Tendulkar was above the league of batsmen. So he doesn’t count. But when it comes to the most superior-middle order batsman across India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, I have never seen anyone better than him (Inzi),” Sehwag told Gaurav Kapur on his famous show ‘Breakfast with Champions’.
“In that era – 2003-04 – he used to talk about scoring 8 an over. He would tell his partner, ‘Don’t worry. You’ll score easily’. Means 80 runs in 10 overs. Other teams would panic but he was always too confident,” he added.
Inzamam retired from international cricket as one of Pakistan’s most decorated batsmen. Part of the team that won the 1992 World Cup, the former batsman played 378 ODIs and 120 Tests, scoring 11739 and 8830 runs respectively. He scored 35 centuries and 129 fifties in international cricket.