Former Australian cricketer Brett Lee was undoubtedly one of the most fearsome bowlers of his time. He was known for his sheer pace and of course, the on-field banters with some of the finest batters of that era, including the Indian great Sachin Tendulkar. The former Aussie quick owns a remarkable record against the master blaster; getting the better of him on 14 occasions. However, Lee still regards the Indian batting legend as one of the toughest batters he had bowled to.
But Sachin isn’t the only one who gave Lee tough times on the field. The former’s opening partner Virender Sehwag also gave the former Aussie speedster some unforgettable moments on the field, the 2003 Boxing Day Test being the most famous instance. Sehwag smoked 195 runs at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground and Lee was one of the bowlers in Australia’s pace attack who was facing the Indian batter’s wrath.
In his latest YouTube video, Lee recalled how Sehwag used to play with the egos of the finest of the bowlers during his playing days.
“You think of the word cruel. You think of the word swashbuckling. Think of the word unpredictable, I think of none other than Virender Sehwag. He played with a smile on his face, with intent… the type of guy that would quite likely want to hit the first ball of a Test match for six… and he has done it. He is a guy that is so hard to bowl to because as I mentioned, the unpredictability. You would bowl that beautiful line and length thinking I’ve got him… ball shaping away. And that big smile, Sehwag would go BANG, hit you over cover for six," Lee said in the video.
In his early days, Sehwag’s batting stance seemed like a mirror image of Tendulkar. On several occasions, it was difficult to differentiate between both batters when they walked out to open together. But it changed over a period of time as Sehwag carved his own legacy. Lee further spoke about how he and his teammates felt when they saw Sehwag for the first time.
“The guy that looked a little bit like Sachin Tendulkar when he was batting. And I thought ‘here we go again. Another Sachin Tendulkar. If one wasn’t enough, we’ve got another one and he is opening the batting’. We in the Australian team had a ploy for Sehwag and even start the Test match with a third man, trying to suck him in to hit one down there. We tried that in an ODI match one day and he wacked it… absolutely nailed it out of the ground. I just thought ‘this guy is too good’. And he would give you that cheeky little wink. The best thing about Sehwag was that he was a character. He loved playing cricket and those little battle scars against the bowler. He got the ability to make people get hooked on to seats," added Lee.
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