If You Score 50 In This Game, You Will Be Selected For The Next Test - Virender Sehwag Said Of Anil Kumble, Who Helped Him Rescue His Test Career

Virender Sehwag, the former India opening batsman, has thanked Anil Kumble for rejuvenating his Test career.

After being dropped from the India Test squad in early 2007, Sehwag lasted nearly a full year without playing another Test match before being recalled in late 2007 during Kumble’s captaincy.

Sehwag was called up to India’s team for the tour of Australia, in which he performed his maiden Test match in a year during the third game in Perth. Returning closer to the Playing XI, on the other hand, was not simple. Sehwag had been given a duty by Kumble, and how well he completed it would determine his return to the team.

“If you score 50 in this match, you will be selected for the game in Perth,” Sehwag recalls Kumble saying on Sports18’s “Home of Heroes” broadcast.

“You will not be removed from the side all the time as I am the Test squad skipper,” Kumble told Sehwag. “The support of his skipper is what a player craves the most.” I learned it from Ganguly in my early years and afterward from Kumble.”

‘Those 60 runs were the most difficult I’d ever scored in my life’: Virender Sehwag

Sehwag, as promised, played in Perth, scoring 29 and 43 runs while taking two wickets. Sehwag, on the other hand, confirmed his entrance during the next encounter in Adelaide. He hit 63 in the first innings and then a calm, match-saving 151 in the second to help India draw the Test.

“Those 60 runs were the most difficult I’d ever scored. I was performing to return Anil Bhai’s confidence in me. I didn’t want people questioning him about why he brought me to Australia. I was concentrating on the striker’s end while conversing with the umpire and whistling my favorite songs. The stress had subsided,” Sehwag added.

After the Australia tour, Sehwag played seven Tests for Kumble, averaging over 62. Sehwag played his finest cricket under Kumble’s leadership, scoring a career-high 319 against South Africa and 201 not out against Sri Lanka.

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