Sehwag recalls Tendulkar’s ‘Desert Storm’
sharjah — Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag went down memory lane, recalling the great Sachin Tendulkar’s epic knocks in Sharjah in the late 90s.
Tendulkar’s back-to-back centuries against the Australians came to be known as the ‘Desert Storm.’ Against a world class bowling attack that included the great Shane Warne, Damien Fleming and Michael Kasprowicz, the Mumbaikar fired 143 in the semifinal of the ODI tri-series also involving New Zealand.
And he followed that up with 134 in the final, again against the Australians.
Sehwag, who made his ODI debut a year later, remembered Tendulkar’s knocks, after the Indian returned to the very venue. “It is a good atmosphere at Sharjah because I love to see this ground because I have good memories of this ground when Sachin Tendulkar scored his two hundreds and won the tournament for India. So, it is good to come back to Sharjah and play some games,” said Sehwag.
Sehwag was the only Indian to feature in the just concluded T10 League and captained the Maratha Arabians in two matches.
And Sehwag felt that the new format was the way forward. “I think T10 is the way forward. And if the ICC thinks that they want to take cricket to the Olympics, this is the format because it finishes in 90 minutes. It is a nice format and I played two games and enjoyed it,” he felt. Sehwag couldn’t make much of an impact but it was more down to him having not played in a while.
“It was a bit tough because I have so many pains in my body and the pain came back so, my back got stiff and sore and I got a back spasm. It was because I was not used to playing. But it was good to be back on the field,” Sehwag said.
The T10 League was an ideal platform for players from the UAE as well as Afghanistan and Ireland and Sehwag said it was an opportunity for him to have a look at these players before the IPL auction. Sehwag is the mentor of Kings XI Punjab.
“A lot of young players are playing, especially from the UAE and Afghanistan, are playing in this League. As a mentor with an IPL team, I watched a lot of players. And you never know when they come to the IPL auction, you know that the player has the capability to score runs or take wickets,” he observed.