15 Years Ago Today, Virender Sehwag Made His Test Debut And Showed What He Can Do In Whites!

Virender Sehwag had already made a name for himself in the Indian cricket team before he walked out to bat on this day, 15 years ago at Bloemfontein against South Africa. However, he was untested with the bat in the longer form of the game. On his Test debut, Sehwag showed the world what he could do in whites. That is, quite simply, score hundreds.

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A months down the line from that day, he was known to totally change the way openers approached Test cricket and then few years later, drove Indian cricket team to the pinnacle of the ICC Test Championship.

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But it all started for him on November 3, 2001 when India were in dire straits at 68 for four, put into bat by South Africa when Sehwag walked out to bat and partner his idol Sachin Tendulkar. Soon, he was matching Sachin shot to shot. He removed all burden of run scoring from Sachin by hitting fours after fours. The likes of Shaun Pollock, Nantie Hayward, Jacques Kallis and Lance Klusener were bamboozled by this young Nawab of Najafgarh.

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Batting at No 6, Sehwag scored a glittering 173-ball 105 in a 220-run stand with Sachin that revived India from 68/4 to 379 in the first innings. India lost the Test by nine wickets, but a star was revealed.

BCCL

Though he made his ODI debut in 1999 and was initially seen as a limited-overs player, Sehwag's biggest contribution was changing the way opening batsman approached Test cricket. A middle-order batsman from his Delhi days, Sehwag made his name opening for India in Test cricket after John Wright and Sourav Ganguly took a gamble on him during the Lord's Test of 2002. Sehwag was a reluctant candidate to move up the order but with a punchy innings of 84 in his first innings as opener, his role was confirmed.

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Sehwag went on to revolutionise the opener's approach, and his strike-rate of 82.23 is the best for any batsman to aggregate over 2000 runs. Though he now continues to entertain his fans in 140 characters on Twitter, it is as a wholesome entertainer and match-winner with the bat in Test cricket that Sehwag is best remembered and cherished. Here, relive that knock...