Virender Sehwag attributes his success to former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly

Sehwag got his first test breakthrough thanks to Sourav Ganguly

After much speculation, the Nawab of Najafgarh, Virender Sehwag has finally announced his retirement from International cricket and the Indian Premier League (IPL), bringing an end to a glittering career. After releasing an official statement on his 37th birthday, Sehwag attributed most of his success to former Indian Captain Sourav Ganguly.

In an interview with ANI, he said “I will always be grateful to Sourav Ganguly for giving me a chance to play test cricket. The selectors at that point were skeptical about my performances and I wasn’t known as a ‘test’ cricketer. However, he showed faith in me, showed me the way and here I am now. If he didn’t back me, I wouldn’t have played test cricket, if I didn’t play tests then, I wouldn’t have been able to score so many centuries or that triple century. So down the line, I attribute my success to him.”

The opening batsmen has scored 8586 runs in 104 matches and 8273 runs in 251 ODI’s. In a career which lasted 12 years, Sehwag notched up the fastest triple century of all time twice.

He added, “Two moments in my career will stand out, one being my first test match where I scored a century and the latter being winning the World Cup. I consider myself lucky that I won one WC out of the three I participated in. One I reached the final, second we were elminated very early and the final one we won, so it’s right up there. But, my biggest moment will be scoring a century on test debut, after everyone doubted me and now people will know me because of that.”

Sehwag also stated that his knock of 201* was a personal favourite. He said,”If I actually start looking back there will be many such instances. For example, when I became the first Indian to make a triple hundred, or when I scored the 201 not out and became only the second Indian after Sunil Gavaskar to carry my bat through. These were the three four moments of my career, now if I start picking it year by year, it will take a long time.”

Earlier in a statement released by him, Sehwag was apologetic about not taking advice from the seniors around him as he wanted to play his natural game.