Virender Sehwag recalls how he once asked Inzamam-ul-Haq to change his field in order to hit a boundary

Everyone is aware of how friendly Virender Sehwag is on the field. During his peak years of batting, he decimated the Pakistan bowling attack with his run of scores in the 2000s. His numbers against the neighbors are quite unreal as well. In nine Tests, he scored 1276 runs at an average of 91.14, with four centuries, including a triple and two double hundreds. 

During a recent interaction, the former Indian opener talked about an incident that had happened during one of those nine Tests which Sehwag played against Pakistan. He recalled the incident when he asked Pakistan’s captain Inzamam-ul-Haq to change his field, just so that he could hit a boundary. 

“I was batting on around 150, but Inzamam-ul-Haq had packed the fielder on the boundary. There was a deep point, long off and long on, deep midwicket and he was trying to stop me from getting fours and sixes. I was a bit bored because Danish Kaneria was bowling on my legs and I just kept defending him,” Sehwag said on the Youtube channel of RJ Raunak. 

Virender Sehwag recalls the time Inzamam-ul-Haq heard his wish

Sehwag recalled that he asked Inzaman at this point to bring in that long-on fielder from his position to the mid-on position inside the 30 yards circle. Just like anyone else, the Pakistan skipper thought Sehwag was joking.

So, the Delhi batsman told him to bring that fielder in for one ball and if he doesn’t hit a boundary, Inzamam can send the player back to the boundary. So, Inzamam signaled to the fielder to come from long on to mid-on. And that’s when Kaneria happened to bowl a googly and Sehwag pounced on it hitting a six. 

Sehwag continued his story, “Kaneria got really angry and he started asking Inzy Bhai why he changed the fielder. Inzamam calmly asked to keep bowling. There are times when your wishes get completed. There were times when the close-in fielders and wicketkeepers would ask me to sing their favorite songs because I would sing songs while batting.”

Sehwag had been in tremendous form during his Test career during the 2000s. He scored India’s maiden triple century in Multan in 2004, then scored 173 in Mohali and 201 in Bengaluru in a Test series in 2005. A year later, he scored 254 runs in Lahore.