I entertained Pakistan cricketers with my batting and singing: Virender Sehwag

Former Indian explosive opening batsman Virender Sehwag is known for his larger than life personality. While talking on a chat show, the veteran cricketer revealed the name of the songs he used to sing while batting. Sehwag also narrated an anecdote involving the Pakistan Cricket team where he entertained the opposition not only with his batting but also his singing talent.

The 42-year-old reckoned that he loved to sing while batting as it helped me lift his mood. Sehwag termed Kishore Kumar’s song, ‘Chala jaata hoon’ from the movie Mere Jeevan Saathi as his favourite. He further opined that the choice of the song was dependent on the pace of his innings. If the batter was able to contribute significantly to the scoreboard, he would sing Bollywood songs, however, if he struggled to get going, he would remember bhajans.

“I used to sing too many songs while batting. But my favourite song was ‘chala jaata hoon kisi ke dhun mein, dhadakte dil ke, taraane lie.’ Because it was one song that I could sing irrespective of whatever mood I am in, and it would lift my mood,” Virender Sehwag said while speaking on CricbuzzLive.

“Sometimes, when I was getting runs, I would be singing Bollywood songs like ‘chittiyan kalaiyaan’. But when I was not being able to score runs, then I would even remember ‘bhagwan ke bhajan’,” he added.

Yasir Hameed requested me to sing Kishore Kumar’s song: Virender Sehwag

Further in the interaction, Sehwag reminisced an incident where he was asked by Yasir Hameed, Pakistan’s opening batsman, who was standing at short leg, to sing a Kishore Kumar Song. Obliging to the demand, the veteran batsman hummed a Kishore Kumar song and entertained the opposition players with both his batting and singing.

“When I used to play, no one would know that I sing songs while playing. But it has happened once during the India-Pakistan series, I was batting around 150 in Bangalore. Yasir Hameed was standing at short leg. He asked me ‘Viru bhai, you sing while batting as well’, so I told him, ‘yes, of course’. So he requested me to sing Kishore Kumar’s song,” Virender Sehwag recalled.

“So, I entertained Pakistan cricketers with my batting, but also entertained them with my singing,” he concluded.

The incident narrated by Virender Sehwag is of the third Test of the three-match Test series between India and Pakistan. Batting in the first innings in Bangalore, Sehwag played a brilliant knock of 201 runs off 262 deliveries. However, his effort went in vain as the visitors registered an easy victory by 168 runs.