5 Indian players who have opened the batting and the bowling in the same ODI

#2 Virender Sehwag (1 ODI)

Virender Sehwag

In the initial part of his career, Virender Sehwag bowled regularly for India. The team did not have the luxury of an all-rounder and thus the likes of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid used Sehwag quite often with the ball.

In 2005, India were up against Australia in the 4th game of the ODI series. Australia opened the innings with two left-handed batsmen, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, which made the Indian skipper Dravid introduce the off-spinner Sehwag early in the innings.

Unfortunately for the Indians, the move didn't pay off as Sehwag failed to get rid of the openers. Things got worse for Sehwag as he was dismissed for a first-ball duck in the pursuit of the huge target of 287, and India eventually lost the game by 77 runs.

This was the first and last instance when Sehwag opened the bowling and batting in the same match for Team India in ODIs.