'Tell your coach to not come near me' - Sehwag recalls controversial episode with former India coach

The incident also involved the interference of Rahul Dravid to stop the argument from going further.

By CricTracker Staff

Updated - 23 Aug 2025, 14:35 IST

2 Min Read

Virender Sehwag is one of the key cricketers who was part of the dressing room when a turmoil called Greg Chappell had hit the Indian team as their head coach. Chappell is arguably the most controversial head coaches the Indian team has had, and got popular for infamously chopping and changing a lot with the line-ups and playing combinations.

Sehwag recently went back in time to reveal one of the heated moments that took place between him and the then coach. The Delhi batter recalled the moment when Chappell was about to drop him for not following the latter's clear-cut instructions. Chappell even intimidated Sehwag of his place in the side if his advices were not obeyed or the opener doesn't score runs. The incident also involved the interference of Rahul Dravid to stop the argument from going further.

"Greg Chappell’s words once hurt me. I was going through a little rough patch. He said to me, ‘If you don’t move your feet, you won’t score runs.’ I replied, ‘Greg, I’ve scored over 6000 runs with an average of over 50.’ But he said, ‘Doesn’t matter.’ We had a bad argument. Then Rahul Dravid came and stepped in to separate us. Later, when I was going out to bat, Greg said, ‘Make sure you score, or I’ll drop you.’ By the end of the second session, I had scored 184 runs. After that, I told Rahul Dravid, ‘Tell your coach not to come near me," Sehwag said via The Life Savers Show.

Sehwag is arguably the most successful opener India have had in their rich Test cricket history. With 8586 runs in just 104 Test matches, Sehwag averages a staggering 49.34 in the format. He also scored 23 centuries and 32 half-centuries to put up a show with the bat and had the ability to hit the ball hard right from the word 'go'. He also has a couple of triple centuries to his name to go with four double hundreds as well, the most for an Indian batter.

Furthermore, he currently enjoys his stints as commentator across the year during key tournaments and cricket games all around the world. The 46-year-old has also served in a coaching position himself, when he was with Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in the Indian Premier League in the 2016 and 2017 edition, when Glenn Maxwell and Ravichandran Ashwin were the captains of the respective seasons.

Get every cricket updates! Follow Us:

Download Our App

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS and Google Play Store