‘I told him ‘You don’t know how to play” – Naved-ul-Hasan recalls how he sledged Virender Sehwag

Naved-ul-Hasan and Virender Sehwag. (Photo Source: Twitter)

Virender Sehwag was one of the most aggressive batters of his time. He used to take the attack to the opposition bowlers and push them on the back foot even before they could react. One of his favourite opponents was Pakistan as some of the Delhi batter’s best knocks came against the arch-rivals, including his first Test triple-century.

Back in 2005, India hosted their arch-rivals for a six-match ODI series. In the second ODI in Visakhapatnam, Sehwag went berserk as he scored a blistering half-century. Former Pakistan cricketer Naved-Ul-Hasan, who was one of the regular members of the bowling attack, dismissed the destructive right-hander for a 40-ball 74. The pacer recently said in an interview how he sledged Sehwag and managed to get him to play a false shot.

“We were playing a match against India. Sehwag was batting on 85. It was the same series in which Shahid Afridi scored a century. We were trailing 0-2; India had already won the first two games in the best of five ODIs. In the third game, Sehwag was hammering us. India had scored close to some 300 runs and Sehwag had smashed Afridi for a few sixes. Everyone was getting a beating from him. So I went up to Inzamam to ask for an over. He said ‘Sure… everybody is getting hit, you give it a try if you want’,” he said on the Nadir Ali podcast.

“The first ball which I bowled was a slower bouncer which Sehwag missed connecting. I went up to him and said ‘You don’t know how to play. I can’t even… Had you been in Pakistan, I don’t think you would have ever made it to the international team’. He said a few things back to me but I was able to needle him. On my way back I told Inzi bhai… ‘Next ball, he is getting out’. I bowled a back-of-the-hand slower ball, and an infuriated Sehwag tried to hit it big but holed out. The wicket was so important that we won that match.”

Interestingly, it has to be noted that Naved’s version is not entirely true. While he did dismiss an in-form Sehwag in that game, MS Dhoni scored his first ODI century to take India to 356/9 batting first as Pakistan lost the game by 58 runs. The away side, however, turned their fortunes from this game onwards and won the remaining four matches to take the series 4-2.