No need to reduce ODIs to 40 overs-a-side: Virender Sehwag

MUMBAI: Trust Virender Sehwag to make a typically blockbuster entry into the ICC Hall of Fame. At a glitzy function here on Tuesday night, former West Indies fast bowler Ian Bishop asked India's opening great about his reaction to being the 112th inductee into the ICC Hall of Fame. Sehwag's response was just like his simple, but dhamakedar (explosive) style of batting: "I think I'm late," Sehwag quipped, inviting peels of laughter.
The other inductees were former India women's captain Diana Edulji - the first Indian woman cricketer to be inducted into the ICC's Hall of Fame and Sri Lankan batting great Aravinda de Silva.
Sehwag is against the idea of reducing the 50-over ODI format to 40-overs-a-side game, as suggested by some experts. "Why? I don't think that there's any need for that. If Somebody wants to play only the shorter format, they can play only T20 cricket? I think 50 overs is fine," he said. There have also been calls, by batting legend Sachin Tendulkar and Pakistan pace bowling great Waqar Younis, to do away with the use of two balls in One-Day cricket, to bring back reverse swing into the game. Sehwag doesn't agree. "Isn't it difficult to play the new ball? Since childhood, I was taught that you have to be careful while playing the new ball. Now, with two new balls, you've to play carefully for the first 10 overs. In my time (where there was only one ball in ODIs), you only had to be circumspect against the new ball for the first five overs. I think batting has become more difficult, and not easy tougher because of two balls in the ODIs," the swashbuckling batsman felt.
For someone who played his cricket fearlessly and without feeling any pressure of expectations, Sehwag's advice to Team India ahead of the 2023 ODI World Cup semi-finals match against New Zealand at the Wankhede Stadium here on Wednesday was simple. "Play fearless cricket and give your best. If 11 players give their best, I think we will win. Go out there and enjoy as you can't control the result. You can't control the result, but give it your best."
Sehwag felt teams needed to play "entertaining cricket" in Tests, along the lines of England's Bazball style. "It's (Bazball) then kind of cricket other teams should play. Every team cannot play like how England is playing, but if they want to entertain people in Test cricket, they have to…batsmen have to take the responsibility to play in a little better way than what they are doing. If you want to win Test matches, then you have to play a little differently to the others. Then only you'll produce a lot of results. If you see, the Indian team is winning Tests because of their bowlers, the batsmen are taking their time to play (their innings)," he said.
Sehwag revealed that it was former India seamer Zaheer Khan, and not ex-India captain Sourav Ganguly who had suggested that he should open the innings in the ODIs. "When Ganguly asked me to open the innings in Test cricket, I asked him: 'Why don't you open the innings, or ask Sachin Tendulkar to open the innings?' 'I'm the captain, he replied," Sehwag recalled, again tickling the funny bone in the distinguished audience, which included West Indies cricket legend Viv Richards.
"If Sehwag is late at getting into the ICC Hall of Fame at 45, I think I'm very late at 67!" Edulji said in jest.
Paying her tribute to former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi, Edulji said, "Bedi was my idol. He taught me to bowl the armer. Because of that, I could bowl the incoming ball, and that got me a lot of wickets in England." She termed her appointment in the Committee of Administrators (CoA), which was running the BCCI for a few years, in 2017 as the "turning point" in India's women's cricket, with the Indian women's team, which reached the final of the Women's World Cup that year, recurving cash prizes due to her decision.