Virender Sehwag shares funny incident with Sachin during 2011 World Cup

In the 50-over format, former India batting stalwarts Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag established a devastating opening combination in their prime. They were the team’s first-choice openers in both the 2003 and 2011 World Cups, with India reaching the final in 2003 & 2011 and finally winning in 2011. The pair was instrumental in India’s victories throughout the 2011 Cricket World Cup at home.

Reminiscing old memories, Sehwag has recently recounted a humorous story about batting with Tendulkar during India’s World Cup group game against South Africa in 2011. The 44-year-old said that Tendulkar had a habit of talking between overs, but he used to sing since it helped him concentrate more on the game. He added that Tendulkar warned him that if he continued to sing like that, he would go insane.

“We were playing against South Africa in 2011 World Cup. I was singing songs while batting and he was also in good touch that time. He had a habit of talking between overs, but I wasn’t talking at all. I was only singing because that helps me concentrate. This continued for three overs. After fourth over, he came from behind and hit me with a bat. He said, ‘tujhe Kishore Kumar bana dunga agar aise hi gaane gaata raha (I’ll go crazy if you keep singing songs like this),” Sehwag said during his commentary stint on Star Sports for the IPL 2023 leaving fellow commentators Ravi Shastri and Jatin Sapru in splits.

We are batting so good, what is there to talk: Sehwag thought to himself

The former opener went on to say that he was thinking to himself that since the two batters were having a great partnership, there wasn’t much to talk about. He added that Tendulkar wanted to chat about bowlers and their strategies between overs, but he didn’t bother to listen to what he had to say.

“I was like, ‘we are batting so good. What’s there to talk, let’s keep it going!’. In 20 overs, we scored around 140-150 that time. When the over gets finished, he wants to talk about bowlers and their tactics… basically the cricketing things. But I don’t care about that at all,” he added.

Notably, India’s only defeat in the competition came against South Africa, even though both openers performed exceptionally well with the bat. Sehwag struck 73, while Tendulkar hit a century (111) as the duo constructed a 142-run opening stand.