Virender Sehwag, nicknamed ‘Viru’, is an international cricketer, who is known for his aggressive right-hand batting style. He was born to Mr.Krishan and his wife Krishna Sehwag on October 20, 1978 in Delhi, India and has three siblings. Virender Sehwag got married to Aarti Alhawat in April 2004 and they have a son born on October 18, 2007.

Virender Sehwag made his Test match debut in 2001 as a middle-order batsman for the Indian team against South Africa with a century to his name, scoring 105. After home series in 2001-02 against England and Zimbabwe, Virender Sehwag was promoted up the order to open the innings in the 2002 England tour and he remained in the order ever since. During the 2002-03 season, he scored his maiden home century of 147 against West Indies, earning his first Man of the Match award and on December 26, 2003 test match against Australia, he scored 195. In 2004, Virender Sehwag scored the first ever triple century by an Indian with 309 runs against Pakistan, earning the Man of the Match award and later, the Man of the Series award. The same year, he scored 155 against Australia in Chennai and 164 in the First Test of the series against South Africa and 88 in the second, claiming the Man of the Series award once again. At the 2005 three-match Test series against Pakistan, Virender Sehwag scored a total of 544 runs at an average of 90.66, and he went on to cross 3000 runs becoming the fastest Indian to reach it in terms of innings played. For his performance in the earlier 12-months period, Virender Sehwag got selected in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test Team of the Year and also got nominated for the Test Player of the Year award. He captained the side in the third Test match of a series against Sri Lanka in the absence of Rahul Dravid, leading the team to victory.

Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his deputy Yuvraj Singh retained the top two slots in batsmen’s list, while Team India managed to cling on to second position in the ICC ODI Rankings issued on Monday.
Dhoni held on to his numero uno status with 828 rating points while left-handed Yuvraj, who had managed his career best ranking last month, had 784 points in his kitty.

The Indian duo are followed by Australia’s Mike Hussey (767), West Indies batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul (759) and his skipper Chris Gayle (756) in the list.

Virender Sehwag (seventh), Sachin Tendulkar (14th) and Gautam Gambhir (17th) stuck to their respective positions.

Meanwhile, South Africa remained on top of ODI Championships table, followed by India and Australia at second and third.

Among the bowlers, injured left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan continued to be the only Indian in top 20 at 16th.

Sri Lankan Nuwan Kulasekara tops the bowlers’ list.

Sourav Ganguly is almost certain to be reinstated as the captain while John Wright is likely to take over as the coach of Kolkata Knight

Riders in the third edition of the Indian Premier League in 2010, team sources said on Saturday.

Even as an official announcement is awaited, sources said that there could be a major reshuffle with former India coach Wright likely to replace John Buchanan as Knight Riders coach, while former Australian middle-order batsman Michael Bevan will be in the coaching panel.

Sources said Ganguly would be back at the helm in 2010 when his contract with the Kolkata team ends and the iconic Bengal cricketer had a one-on-one with prinicipal owner Shah Rukh Khan when the duo met in London to receive doctorates by the University of Central Lancashire last week.

“Ganguly and Shah Rukh Khan had a discussion about this when the left-hander was in London last week. They have agreed in priniciple that Ganguly will lead the side,” the source said.

“There were also discussions about the possible coaches. Wright and Bevan are the front runners. It is up to Shah Rukh to take the final call.”

Ganguly, meanwhile, said that nothing is final as yet and a proper announcement will be made in due time.

“I don’t take the decision of KKR alone. There are a number of people involved in the process. But hopefully in due course of time we will get a person who will coach the team. The decision has not been made yet,” Ganguly said.

C K Naydu