The legendary Indian batsman was the pinnacle of hand-eye coordination in a cricketer. Even with zero to minimal feet movement, Sehwag achieved great results. Not only was he a highly destructive batsman in limited overs cricket, he also averaged over 50 for the greater part of his red-ball career.
At the launch of the Cricuru app, Sehwag acknowledged the deficiencies in his footwork. He also added that though he was aware of the problem, no one advised him on how to solve the issue.
“Everyone said I need to improve my foot movement but nobody had the answers how,” said Sehwag.
In the end, he found his answers. Not from any one cricketer, but three former India greats – Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, and Krishnamachari Srikkanth. Sehwag added that advice from them helped him improve his game massively.
“But by the advice of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Sunil Gavaskar, and Krishnamachari Srikkanth to stand on middle-off instead of leg stump helped me a lot.”
Viru also mentioned that he learnt the straight drive after watching Sachin Tendulkar play in the 1992 World Cup. Sehwag would go on to play several years along with Tendulkar for the Indian cricket team and the duo also went on to star in the 2011 ICC World Cup which India won.
“Cricket is played on the ground but a lot can be learned. If I give my own example, I started watching cricket from the 1992 World Cup and at that time used to watch (Sachin) Tendulkar and copy him. “…How he plays the straight drives, how he plays the back-foot punch… In 1992, if I could watch TV and learn a bit, why not,” said Sehwag, who is also the founder of Cricuru app.
Sehwag added that cricketers today have the advantage of current technology and can emulate a lot from watching the great cricketers in action.
“But in today’s time if you have videos of these cricketers whom you admire – AB De Villiers, Brian Lara, Chris Gayle or Virender Sehwag, or other players, then their videos are available. In our time, such videos were not available.
“If in my time such facilities were there like I could speak to someone online or subscribe the videos with ease, then I would have done that and could have learned better and early and could have played for India early.
“The mental aspect is important and we have to launch (the app) with the mental aspect and later on we can go with cricket skills. But When I spoke with Sanjay (Bangar) and (then) Sanjay told me that the mental aspect is important but skill is also important.
“Because he spent so much time with the Indian cricket team as a batting coach and he told me that a lot of even international cricketers are finding difficulty (finding it difficult) to find their mistakes and correct them,” said Sehwag.
