Virender Sehwag makes sensational claims on Shoaib Akhtar

Former India opening batter Virender Sehwag has made some shocking claims against veteran pacer Shoaib Akhtar, saying that the pacer used to bend his elbow beyond the limit set by the World Cricket Governing Body. Sehwag said that the former speedster used to chuck while bowling. He pointed out that this was the reason the Rawalpindi Express was banned for a few games.

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“Shoaib knows he used to jerk his elbow; he knew he was chucking too. Why would the Governing body of international cricket ban him otherwise? Brett Lee’s hand came down straight, so it was easy to pick the ball. But with Shoaib, you could never guess where the hand and the ball will come from” said Sehwag.

Sehwag added that Shane Bond, who played for New Zealand and now coaching the Mumbai team in the Indian T20 League, was the toughest bowler he faced. “His (Bond’s) deliveries would come swinging into your body, even if he bowled outside the off stump. I never feared facing Brett Lee, but with Shoaib, I could not trust what he could do if I hit him twice to the fence. Maybe a beamer or a toe-crushing yorker,’- Sehwag admitted during the conversation.

When asked about his flamboyant batting style, Sehwag that he used to play aggressive cricket to make his name in a team that had stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and others. “Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly all would score their centuries playing 150-200 balls. If I scored hundreds at the same rate, no one would remember me. I had to score runs faster than them to create my identity.”

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“I always thought that if I stayed till the end of the day, I should score 250 runs, and in that process, I obviously would have to cross 100,150,200 and so on. So, there was no pressure in hitting a ball to or over the fence in the nineties, because the goal was not to stop at 100,”- he added.