When Virender Sehwag first burst onto the scene, he was called the next Sachin Tendulkar, not because people thought that he was going to be as good as Tendulkar, but mostly because both him and Sachin were short in stature and their batting style was somewhat similar as both of them liked playing through the off side and liked to go down the track against the spinners.
Now that both Sachin and Sehwag are retired from the game, let’s talk about a few of the co-incidences in their careers –
#1 Scored one double hundred each in ODI cricket
Sachin Tendulkar became the first-ever player to score a double hundred in ODI cricket, not just for India, but among all the countries. He achieved this magical feat against South Africa in Gwalior in 2010.
And then just a year later, Virender Sehwag pulled it off as well against West Indies in Indore. Sehwag went past Tendulkar’s tally and scored 219 runs which remained the highest score in ODI cricket for some time. Sehwag was also captaining India in that game in the absence of MS Dhoni.
#2 Scored same no. of double hundreds in Test cricket
Tendulkar always batted with a sedate approach in Test cricket, but Sehwag never shied away from going after the bowlers even in the longest format of the game and that’s why most of the cricket pundits thought Sehwag might not be able to play too many big knocks in Test cricket.
But, as it turned out, Sehwag scored the same no. double hundreds in Test cricket as Tendulkar. Both of them bid adieu to the game with 6 Test double hundreds to their name.
#3 Scored first ODI century in Colombo
Sachin Tendulkar scored his first ODI century against Australia in 1994 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo and Sehwag also got to the three-figure mark for the first time in ODI cricket in Colombo only, but he did it at a different stadium in Colombo.
Sehwag scored his maiden ODI hundred at Sinhalese Sports Club in 2001 and the opposition was New Zealand. Sehwag faced just 70 balls to get to his hundred in that game.
#4 Scored first Test hundred at no. 6
When Tendulkar scored his first Test hundred at Old Trafford in England way back in 1990, he was batting at no. 6 as India already had a few greats of the game batting up the order and Tendulkar was slotted down as he was a youngster at that stage. Tendulkar later held the no. 4 position in the Indian Test team for a long time.
The same happened to Sehwag as well, as he was also slotted at no. 6 initially in his Test career and scored his first Test hundred against South Africa at Bloemfontein batting at no. 6. However, Sehwag was later promoted to open the batting in Test cricket by the former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly.
#5 Scored same no. of runs in first IPL game
Tendulkar was the icon player for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2008 which was the first season of IPL, while Sehwag featured for Delhi Daredevils in that tournament and both of them coincidentally scored just 12 runs in their first game in the Indian Premier League. Both of them had opened the batting for their respective teams.
