Player Battles: Virender Sehwag versus Viv Richards

#3 Contribution in winning

Sehwag played his part in many historic overseas victories for India

No matter how good individual performances are, we cannot overlook the aspect that, at the end of the day, it is the results that matter. So, what was Sehwag and Richards’s contribution in team victories?

During his career, Richards was part of 63 Test wins and he scored 4300 runs in them. Interestingly, his average of 52.43 in these Tests is close to his overall career average of 50.23.

In the list of other West Indies batsmen who featured in more than 50 Test wins in the same era, Richards stands second to CG Greenidge, who averaged 54.20. Thus, Richards truly was the match winner for his side.

Sehwag featured in 42 Test wins and scored 3498 runs in them at an average of 54.65. His average in Test matches that India won is significantly higher than his career average of 49.34. When we compare his average with other Indian batsmen who featured in these Tests, Rahul Dravid (ranked first with an average of 67.27) and Sachin Tendulkar (ranked second with an average of 67.06) are way ahead of Sehwag. However, Sehwag’s strike rate of 88.15 makes him stand out in this list.