Aakash Chopra reveals how Sourav Ganguly had revived Virender Sehwag's cricketing career

Aakash Chopra has revealed how the then Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly had revived Virender Sehwag's cricketing career. At the same time, Chopra also revealed why he could not succeed in cementing his place at the international level. The Delhi cricketer could only play 10 Test matches between 2003 and 2004. 

Chopra reveals how Ganguly had backed 

“Viru, after scoring a lot of runs initially, had a big dry patch very early in his career. Sourav Ganguly had gone to Viru and told him to make runs that day else he would not be able to play him again. Fortunately, he scored a century in that game. So, Sourav Ganguly also backed a lot. I remember that Yuvraj Singh had a stretch of 18-20 innings when he didn’t score a half-century,” said Aakash Chopra while interacting on his official Youtube channel.

“It was my mistake that when I was making 40’s-50’s, I should have been making hundreds, no one had held my bat. Although the team had given me a role to play in a particular manner, I took that role to heart. So I modified my game, that whatever task I have been given I need to perform that because that is what all players should do,” the cricketer-turned-commentator/analyst further added.

 

Sourav Ganguly's successful captaincy career

Ganguly was handed over the captaincy in 2000 when the Indian Cricket was in turmoil after that infamous match-fixing scandal broke out that included star cricketers Ajay Jadeja and former skipper Mohammad Azharuddin. Under Dada's captaincy, India had reached the finals of ICC Knockout Trophy 2000, won the Natwest tri-series in England by beating the hosts in the final that was led by Nasser Hussain, joint-winners of ICC Champions Trophy 2002 along with Sri Lanka, runners-up in the 2003 World Cup, drawing the Test series in Australia in 2003/04 and registering a historic ODI as well as Test series win against arch-rivals Pakistan in Pakistan, etc. Dada's captaincy ended in 2005 after his fallout with former Australian cricketer/captain-turned coach Greg Chappell.

Virender Sehwag's illustrious cricketing career 

Sehwag has represented India at the highest level in 103 Tests and 251 One Day Internationals from 1999 to 2013. In his successful career, he has managed to score over 8,000 runs in both formats of the game i.e. 8,586 Test runs and 8,273 ODI runs. The Delhi cricketer was regarded as an explosive opening batsman who had the ability to change the complexion of the game at will. At the same time, he was also a handy part-time right-arm spinner as well.  He was an integral part of the Men In Blues' ICC World T20 2007 and World Cup 2011 triumphs.

Viru had bid adieu to the game in November 2015 and since then has been a successful commentator as well as a cricket pundit. He was last seen in action during the Road Saftey Series earlier this year where he was representing the India Legends led by the Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar. The event was called off midway due to the global pandemic.

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