Speaking English was mentally challenging in early stages of my career: Virender Sehwag

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and former India opening batter Virender Sehwag were one of the guests on the new season of the famous quiz show Kaun Banega Crorepati, hosted by popular Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan. The former cricketers graced the show on Friday (September 3) for a noble cause as the amount of money that they won will be used for the benefit of society.

The duo started on a bright note by answering all the questions and won up to INR 40,000. The pair had answered a question related to Tennis star Naomi Osaka, who pulled out of the French Open due to mental health issues. Bachchan’s question related to the tennis player led to a discussion related to mental health among the trio. Ganguly was quick to answer that stating that players have to play under lot of pressure and now, living in stringent bio-bubbles all the time is indeed tough.

Recently, talismanic all-rounder Ben Stokes pulled out of the high octane five-match Test series between England and India, citing mental health issues. Ganguly gave the example of the England all-rounder and felt that mental wellbeing has become even more important during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When Sehwag faced problem speaking in English

Sehwag shared his mental challenges while speaking in English during his early days with the Indian team and said he had even requested his first interview to be conducted in Hindi by Ravi Shastri. The Nawab of Najafgarh though could not escape by speaking in Hindi, as Shastri questioned him in English.

During the later stages of his playing career, Sehwag learned to speak English and for a brief while, did take up English commentary too. But he is proud in speaking Hindi wherever he can. In fact, the majority of his Tweets too are predominantly in Hindi and he is not shy to express it either on various public platforms.

The former India opening batter is currently in the United Kingdom, doing Hindi commentary in the ongoing England and India Test series. Since retirement, Sehwag has taken a liking to commentary and has established himself as one of the prominent Hindi commentators.