Two heroes of India's World Cup win hang up their boots

With the exit of pacer Zaheer and blaster Sehwag, Indian cricket has lost two of its most exciting players

Even as India was gripped by festive cheer, two of its modern-day cricket legends quietly hung up their boots, leaving behind their records and exploits on the field for their fans to remember. Left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan first and then explosive batsman Virender Sehwag — two heroes of India’s 2011 One-Day International (ODI) World Cup victory — announced their retirement from international cricket within a space of 5 days.

With the exit of Khan and Sehwag, India has lost two of the last few stalwarts of the game the country produced in an age when the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and V V S Laxman also played.

Business Standard pays its tributes to the duo with a look-back on their illustrious careers.

Zak, the king of swing

With 610 international wickets, Zaheer Khan, or ‘Zak’ as he is famously called, is easily one of the greatest fast bowlers India has produced. His wicket tally of 311 in 92 test matches is next only to Kapil Dev’s 434 in 131 matches among Indian pacers.

In ODIs, Khan took 282 wickets in the 200 matches that he played, at an average of 29.43 runs and an economy rate of 4.93. While he had one 5-wicket haul in his career, he took four wickets seven times, and won six man-of-the-match awards.

Known for his ability to swing the ball both ways, Khan led India’s pace attack in the 2011 World Cup and took 21 wickets in the nine games he played during the tournament. The same year, the Arjuna Award was conferred upon him by the President of India.

Khan’s 51 test wickets in 15 matches in 2002 calendar year were the best tally for any cricketer that year. And, he was named one of the Wisden  Cricketers of the Year in 2008.

Khan played few international matches in recent years due to persistent injuries; he had sustained one on his bowling arm in May 2014 which put him out of action for long, though he managed to play seven games in the 2015 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

After his international debut in 2000, Khan’s most prominent test performance came on the England tour of 2007, when he scalped 18 wickets at an average of 20.33. He played his final Test match against New Zealand in Wellington in early 2014, while his last ODI was more than three years ago, against Sri Lankan in Pallekele.

Viru, the sultan of Multan

Once a middle-order batsman, Sehwag was given the opportunity by the then skipper Sourav Ganguly to open the innings along with Sachin Tendulkar, Sehwag’s idol. As time would proceed, Sehwag would become one of the world’s fiercest openers in limited-over as well as test-match formats. His mantra was simple: Every ball was meant to be played on merit and if it was there to be hit, it would be.

Fondly referred to as ‘Viru’, Sehwag once said in a television interview: “If you bowl 10 balls outside the off stump, I will hit nine to the boundary and might get out on the 10th. But I will not let go of those nine boundaries for the fear of getting out.”

The most astonishing aspect of Viru’s career was his ability to build massive scores at a breakneck speed. It might be very difficult to pick one ‘Viru special’ test innings — there are so many of them. It could be his 319 runs against the Proteas’ deadly attack, with the Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini, Morne Morkel, Jacques Kallis and Paul Harris at the forefront. It might be his 309 runs in Multan, where he reached his triple hundred by hitting a six off a Saqlain Mushtaq delivery, to become the first Indian to score 300 runs in an innings. Or, it could even be his 293 runs against Sri Lanka in Mumbai, where 284 of the total were scored in just one day. That innings was marked by the Viru brand of fierce batting. And, of course, how could one forget his crucial 201 runs on a turning Galle track, where the rest of the team struggled to score 100 together ?

Sehwag holds the Indian record for the highest number of double-hundreds in test matches. And, he came in the sniffing distance of a third triple-ton when he scored 293. Had he made seven more runs, he would have become the first batsman to hit three triple-hundreds.

In ODIs, he held for some time the record for the highest score in an innings by scoring a blistering 219 runs against West Indies in Indore. The most remarkable feature of that knock was the ease with which he reached the landmark, completing the double-hundred with more than six overs to spare. While coming out to bat for this magical innings, his batting partner Suresh Raina confirmed that Viru was singing a Kishore Kumar song. That was Sehwag’s style — effortless batting, easy ways and the ability to hit even a swinging yorker bowled at 145 kmph past point for a boundary.


The heroes of India’s second World Cup win

None could doubt the valuable contributions of Zaheer Khan and Virender Sehwag in India’s epic World Cup victory of 2011.

Under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and with some of the greatest performances by his teammates, India won its first World Cup since 1983 — a milestone reached to honour the dream of retiring ‘God of Cricket’ Sachin Tendulkar.

Khan contributed significantly by providing an edge to India’s pace attack. He completed the World Cup campaign with 21 wickets and finished on top of the wicket-takers’ heap, jointly with Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi. In the final tie of the tournament, he got India an early break-through by scalping Sri Lanka’s destructive opener Upul Tharanga, who was caught in the slip by Sehwag.

One of the highlights for Sehwag’s Cup crusade was his ‘sweet revenge’ from Bangladesh with a boundary off the first ball of the match, delivered by Shafiul Islam. He went on to play a blistering knock of 175 runs off 140 balls, with 14 fours and five sixes.

The brand masters

Zaheer Khan

Net worth: According to a report by news website World Blaze, published on February 2 this year, Zaheer Khan’s net worth is $10 million.

Income Source: Besides making money through match fees, Khan endorses a number of brands, including Idea Cellular and Adidas. He was signed in by health care brand Dabur, for its glucose product in 2009. In 2011, he became the brand ambassador for online clothing retail brand Sher Khan, of which he is also a co-owner.

Assets: Zaheer Khan currently resides in Mumbai and also owns a restaurant called ZKs in Pune.

Virender Sehwag

Earnings: According to Forbes India , Sehwag’s total earnings from match fees, IPL contract and endorsements stood at Rs 27.73 crore as of January 2013.

Sponsors: According to Sehwag’s website, www.sehwagworld.com, he currently has four sponsors — Adidas, Zandu Balm, Boost and JK Cement.

Businesses: Sehwag is the founder of Sehwag International School (SIS). He also runs Sehwag Cricket Academy, which he founded in 2011 for nurturing new talent.