During his career, Virender Sehwag got a lot of runs against spinners when he played for India. But the starter had trouble understanding Muttiah Muralitharan’s moves, which made it hard for him to score against the former Sri Lankan international.
Sehwag said that he didn’t worry about getting out against Shane Warne, Shoaib Akhtar, or any other bowler, but he did worry about getting out against Muttiah Muralitharan.
The 44-year-old also said it took him seven years to figure out how to deal with an off-spinner. He joked, though, that it hurt his pride when Muralitharan beat him, but he was never afraid to give it his all against the spin master.
“Muttiah Muralitharan was the only bowler I was afraid of getting out to. Everyone thought it would be Shane Warne, Shoaib Akhtar, Brett Lee, or Glenn McGrath, but I never worried about getting out against any of them. I was scared that I would get hit in the body or on the helmet. We couldn’t score runs against McGrath, and that was about it.
“However, I was afraid of Muralitharan. I didn’t know how to score runs against him because I was afraid of getting out. “I used to have trouble picking his doosra,” Sehwag said on the most recent episode of Breakfast With Champions.
Sehwag, on the other hand, said a few years ago that he never used to think of off-spinners as real bowlers. India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin told how the opener hit Harbhajan Singh even though he was sick. Now, when talking about Muralitharan, Sehwag said that he never thought of the Sri Lankan spinner as a real bowler, but he was still afraid of getting out to him.
“I never thought he could bowl, but I was afraid. I used to try to hit him, but I always got out of it. My pride would get hurt when I couldn’t score runs against an off-spinner. “It took me a long time to figure out how to deal with him,” Sehwag said.
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