Piers Morgan was a Sehwag superfan before Twitter attrition

In the recent days, the tweet war between English journalist Piers Morgan and former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag has surfaced the internet time and again. A series of tweets with intended puns and aiming to troll one another has grabbed a lot of attention. It all started when Morgan criticized the Indian Olympic team for a dismal show at the Rio Olympics.

According to Morgan, it was only embarrassing to be celebrating just two medals in a nation of one billion. Virender Sehwag was right back at him and since then he has been targeting Morgan on the social media. Morgan, too, has been trying to hit back with his provocative tweets.

However, what most people would be startled to know is the fact that Morgan was perhaps Sehwag’s biggest fan prior to their tweet war. Some of the previous tweets of Morgan clearly suggest his awe for the former Indian opener. When Sehwag had retired from all forms of the game, Morgan was quick to take to Twitter and express his admiration for the star batsman.

He had tweeted, “Farewell to an explosive, swashbuckling, thrilling batsman. A man who played cricket the way it should be played. Thank you @virendersehwag.”

Farewell to an explosive, swashbuckling, thrilling batsman.
A man who played cricket the way it should be played.
Thank you @virendersehwag.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 20, 2015

Well, this is not the only evidence of Piers Morgan showering praises on Sehwag. The British journalist has often taken to the social media to compile his list of XI players on various occasions. Only to add to your amazement, VirenderSehwag has been featuring in all the World XI list compiled by Morgan ever since the year 2012.

Morgan had released his all-time great India XI and Sehwag featured right at the top of it. He had tweeted in November 2012, “My all-time great India Xi: Gavaskar, Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, KapilDev, Dhoni, Kumble, Srinath, Chandrasekhar, Bedi.”

My all-time great India XI: Gavaskar, Sehwag, Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman, Kapil Dev, Dhoni, Kumble, Srinath, Chandrasekhar, Bedi.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 25, 2012

Interestingly enough, Sehwag also made it to Morgan’s ODI World XI and all-time Test cricket World XI as well. Sehwag featured as the opener with Chris Gayle in Morgan’s ODI World XI. Sehwag was the only Indian to feature in the list. In a tweet of November 2012, Morgan wrote, “And my all-time ODI World XI: Sehwag, Gayle, Richards, KP, Lara, Gilchrist, Flintoff, Akram, Marshall, Garner, Murali.”

My all-time Test cricket World XI: Sehwag, Tendulkar, Bradman (C), Richards (V), Sobers, Botham, Gilchrist, Warne, Lillee, McGrath, Murali.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 15, 2012

Sehwag, Tendulkar – would both make my all-time World XI RT @ravijain748 @piersmorgan you have any fav indian players?

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 15, 2012

In his list of all-time cricket entertainers too, Sehwag was the only Indian to feature in Morgan’s list of October 2015. He tweeted, “My all-time Cricket Entertainers XI: Sehwag, Gayle, Richards, KP, De Villiers, Botham, Gilchrist, Flintoff, Warne, Lillee, Lee.”

My all-time Cricket Entertainers XI:
Sehwag
Gayle
Richards (V)
KP
De Villiers
Botham
Gilchrist
Flintoff
Warne
Lillee
Lee

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 25, 2015

The tweet war might have been the talk of the town but there is certainly no denial that Piers Morgan absolutely adored the former Indian opener. Is VirenderSehwag aware of it? Not very sure.