Once batting on 300, I called 12th man to get the lyrics of a song as I forgot it: Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag and ‘Bindaas’ nature has been well documented so far. The former India opener cared very less who was bowling at him and was only bothered about whether to hit a six or a boundary. It would have been seldom that one would find him under pressure. And, even if he was under any pressure, he had a remedy for it – Bollywood songs.

As confessed by the man himself, Viru loved singing songs while batting just like West Indies batsman Lawrence Rowe used to whistle while batting. But, what would happen if Viru, while batting in the middle,  forgets the lyrics? While most of us will assume that he won’t think about and rather focus on the bowler who is approaching. But, that was not the case when he was smashing his way to his second triple-hundred, against South Africa during a Test in Chennai in April 2008.

“Once when I was batting in Chennai on 300, I forgot the lyrics of song. So I called Ishant Sharma, who was the 12th man for that game, to the field and told him to get the lyrics of the song from my iPod, and he did that. Obviously, everyone thought that I had asked for ‘drinks’ from Ishant, but sometimes, the 12th man can be used in this way too! The song was ‘ Tu Jaane Na ‘.” Sehwag recalled on Wednesday evening here, while launching the second season of the Goregaon Sports Club’s premier league.

And what would be the song on his lips while facing ‘Rawalpindi Express’ Shoaib Akhtar? ” Aa dekhen zara, kismein kitna hai dum ,” he responded instantly. Revealing about why he had this peculiar habit of singing while batting, the retired great said: “Before facing a ball, I used to keep thinking about whether to hit the ball for a four or a six. To avoid thinking too much, and maintain my concentration, I started singing.”

As is his won’t these days, the 38-year-old kept producing witty one-liners the same way in which fours and sixes flew off his bat. The man who made Test cricket thrilling with his exhilarating batsmanship is now a rage on twitter and with the mic, coming up with hilarious one-liners which leave you in splits.

If England all-round great Ian Botham felt that the best way to deal with your mother-in-law was to send her to Pakistan, Sehwag has a better solution. “There’s no point in arguing with them. Treat them like I would treat fast bowlers. I realised that there’s no point in ‘sledging’ them. Once, when Andy Flintoff was bowling bouncers to me in India, I promised him that if he didn’t do that, I would take him to a place where you get good curry in the evening. It worked.”