Aakash Chopra Narrates How Sourav Ganguly Commanded Virender Sehwag To Score Runs
Published - 29 Jun 2020, 08:13 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:31 AM
Aakash Chopra may not have been amongst the most experienced players to ever play for India. However, he has lived through some of the glorious days of the Indian cricket team. At present, while Aakash Chopra works as a reputed cricket analyst, he has also taken time to narrate some of the anecdotes of the past via his Youtube channel. One of those relates to the former captain Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag.
The first signs of a revival of the Indian team undeniably came under Sourav Ganguly. The current BCCI President took over the reins and scored victories against Steve Waugh’s Australia in 2001, giving India a Champions Trophy in 2002.
In addition to that, India reached the finals in the 2000 Champions Trophy and the 2003 World Cup. Sourav Ganguly guided India to 21 Test triumphs from 49 and 76 ODI victories from 147 fixtures.
Apart from that, cricketers like Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, and Yuvraj Singh also owe their careers to Ganguly, who backed them relentlessly.
Meanwhile, Aakash Chopra recalled an incident when Ganguly, as captain, told Sehwag to make his bat talk to save his spot.
The 42-year-old added that the destructive batsman from Delhi slammed a century after that. Chopra also remembered Ganguly supporting Yuvraj Singh when the all-rounder was undergoing a rough phase.
“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,” Aakash said.
It was my mistake that when I was making 40’s-50’s: Aakash Chopra
The Uttar-Pradesh born cricketer remembered his career, having been cut short due to not converting starts into substantial scores. Aakash continued by stating that he did modify his game to suit the needs of the team; however, his career could not extend more than 10 Tests. He made only 437 runs at 23, consisting of two half-centuries.
“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,” he added.
