Former India opener Virender Sehwag has revealed that he wanted to retire from ODI cricket during the Australia tour in 2008 after then India captain MS Dhoni had dropped him for a few games. Sehwag then said Sachin Tendulkar stopped him from announcing his retirement from the ODI format during that Australia tour.
Notably, Sehwag was dropped from India’s playing XI after scoring 6, 33, 11, and 14 in India’s first four matches in the tri-series. India sealed a historic win over Australia in the best of three finals of that CB series but Sehwag did not play any part after that match on February 24.
Sehwag went on to play for another 7 to 8 years for India in all three formats of the game and even won the ODI World Cup in 2011.
“In 2008 when we were in Australia, this question (of retirement) came to my mind. I made a comeback in the Test series and scored 150. In the ODIs, I couldn’t score that much in three-four attempts. So MS Dhoni dropped me from the playing XI then the thought of quitting ODI cricket came to my mind. I thought I would continue playing only Test cricket,” Sehwag said on the Cricbuzz show ‘Match Party.
“Sachin Tendulkar stopped me at that time. He said ‘this is a bad phase of your life. Just wait, go back home after this tour, think hard and then decide what to do next. Luckily I didn’t announce my retirement at that time.”
“There are two types of players – Those who like challenges, they have fun in such situations and Virat is one of those. He listens to all the criticism, reacts on the field by scoring runs to prove them wrong. The other type are the ones who are unaffected by all the noise because at the end of the day they know what they need to do. I was that kind of player. I didn’t care who criticised me. I wanted to play, score runs and go home,” Sehwag added.
