Former Indian opener Aakash Chopra had the privilege of batting along with Virender Sehwag, who did a fine job for the Indian team. Chopra recalled that it was always exciting to bat with Virender Sehwag. The current commentator also revealed that the opposition used to focus on Sehwag, as he was more attacking in his approach.
On the other hand, Chopra added that Sehwag would hit the good balls for fours and thus he was making Chopra’s job easier. Aakash shared a good understanding with Sehwag as both of them played for Delhi. The cricket analyst also revealed that Sehwag always wanted to pick up quick singles.
Virender Sehwag has a great Test record as he scored 8586 runs in 104 Test matches at an average of 49.34. Sehwag also scored two triple hundreds in his illustrious Test career.
In fact, it was not easy to break into India’s Test side as India’s batting order had batsman like Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman.
Chopra was able to play 10 Test matches and did a decent job while opening the innings with Sehwag. The right-hander had a solid defence and made sure that he played a key role in playing as many balls as possible in order to make the new ball lose its shine.
“The Indian batting order was so packed that there was only one slot open while batting alongside Virender Sehwag, and I took it up,” Aakash Chopra told Sportskeeda.
“Viru was making my job a lot easier because he was hitting good balls for fours. When someone does that, then opposition keeps focusing on them,” the 42-year-old added.
“Viru was absolutely outstanding; we go back a long way, we played school cricket together. I just wanted to enjoy the best seat in the house but just leave it at that because there is only one Virender Sehwag,” the cricketer-turned-commentator added.
On being asked whether Chopra feels he doesn’t get the credit he deserves, the former batsman answered in the negative. The right-hander played 10 Test matches in which he scored 437 runs at an meagre average of 23 with the help of two fifties. Chopra believes had he converted his starts into substantial scores, he would have received more chances and it could have been a different story altogether. However, as Chopra failed to get the big scores under his belt, he was not backed by the team and the Delhi batsman doesn’t have any kind of regrets.
Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra did not have the most successful career as an International batsman but he is doing a fine job as a broadcaster. Chopra is fluent in his analysis in both Hindi and English and he is known to hit the nail on the head.
