Virender Sehwag opens up on Ishant Sharma's 'Selfish act': 'He couldn't survive two balls'

Former India opener Virender Sehwag is said to be one of the most destructive openers of his time who was believed to only deal in boundaries. Sehwag has won Team India many matches on his own and was an extraordinary opening partner to Sachin Tendulkar. 

Virender Sehwag was very effective with the bat as an opener and used to scare the opponents. The former India opener has revealed an interesting incident about India's tour to Sri Lanka in 2008. During the second Test of the series, Sehwag played an unbeaten knock of 201 and took his team to a score of 329. The other batsmen were not even able to touch the double figures mark. However, the visitors beat Sri Lanka in that match by an inning and 179 runs. 

Virender Sehwag while speaking on Ranveer Allahbadia's YouTube channel shared an incident from that match. Sehwag said that he could have even scored more in the match if number 11 Ishant Sharma would not urge him to take a single. The initial query concerned unfavorable effects in the dressing room, and Sehwag began his response by criticizing players for being "selfish," using his interaction with Ishant as an illustration.

“Bad vibes are in the sense that some want to score runs but want others to fail. Growing up, I've always wanted both, the opponent and me, to score runs. Whoever is better will eventually be selected. Why should I get selfish?", Sehwag said in the beginning. 

Sehwag shares an incident from the 2008 India vs Sri Lanka Test match

"Let me tell you a story. I was batting on 199. Ishant Sharma was my partner. I knew Ishant couldn't play out Muralitharan and (Ajantha) Mendis. I could've been selfish that time, I could've taken a single to reach my 200 and give Ishant the strike. But I played out five deliveries against Muralitharan and took a single off the last ball", Sehwag said. 

“Ishant came to me and said, ‘Bhaiya, I will play. You’re getting scared for no reason. I said okay, I scored 200, took a single, reached 201, and gave him the strike. Ishant couldn't survive two balls. Then I asked him, ‘So you played them out? Are you done?", Sehwag said. 

“Here, I was thinking that I can add more runs to the scoreboard and he said he will play them out. It wasn't important for me to score 200. All I wanted was to be at the strike and score as many runs as possible for the team. So, I didn't have that selfishness", Sehwag added.