On this day in 2001: Arrival of a genius – Virender Sehwag’s debut Test
Test cricket is often regarded to be the toughest format in cricket. In this format, consistency and patience are extremely important virtues to have. Batsmen are often required to leave a lot of balls and play out time. That is how Test cricket was played for ages. However, one batsman was not going to have any of it. Virender Sehwag made his debut on 3rd November 2001, and completely changed people’s perspective on how Test cricket can be played.
India were touring South Africa in 2001. It was an important tour as it was coming a year after serious match-fixing allegations against the leadership groups of both the teams. The teams needed to put up some quality cricket to win the trust of their fans. In the first Test, South Africa won the toss and elected to field first.
India had a good batting line up, but they were up against a very strong line up which included the likes of Shaun Pollock, Jaques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini. India lost an early wicket in Rahul Dravid. After his dismissal, India got a small partnership but kept losing wickets in clusters. At 68-4, and most of the top batsmen dismissed, India found themselves in a precarious situation. That is when 23-year-old Virender Sehwag joined the maestro Sachin Tendulkar at the crease.
A future legend arrives…..joining his idol at the crease….
On this day, in 2001…..Virender Sehwag on test debut ??pic.twitter.com/fxa7RDirZM
— Rob Moody (@robelinda2) November 3, 2020
Century on debut
Sehwag was coming in with the reputation of a decent batsman who could strike the ball hard. And boy he did that in this innings. Sehwag started off cautiously. He played balls to the merit. While he did defend the good balls, he wasn’t afraid to put away the bad ones. He started gaining confidence and was striking the ball beautifully. He brought up his half-century with Tendulkar at the end. The two batsmen had a mammoth partnership of 220 runs which set India on track to get a respectable total. But even after Tendulkar’s dismissal, Sehwag didn’t slow down. He started accelerating even more and eventually brought up his 100 with a magnificent boundary. It was an early sign of a batsman who wasn’t afraid to play an attacking stroke even when he was close to a milestone. Sehwag eventually was bowled on 105, not before he had scored a scintillating ton which included as many as 19 boundaries.
India managed to get 379 in their first innings, but the Proteas deflated their efforts as they ended up scoring 563. India couldn’t get going in their second innings. While Sehwag showed glimpses of his attacking self once again, scoring a 31 of 36 balls, India were bundled out for 237 and South Africa chased down the target easily. While India lost this Test, it marked the arrival of superstar Sehwag. He was promoted to open the batting very soon, and as they say rest is history, Sehwag ended up scoring 8586 runs in Tests at an average of 49.34 and an unbelievable SR of 82.82. He was also the first Indian to score a triple ton in Tests. And all of this started in South Africa in 2001. What a player!
