When it's Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag at the other end of the pitch in a couple of weeks, life is likely to be different for the Australian bowlers. While Tendulkar was settling in to bed after landing in Melbourne on Thursday night, Sehwag was back in India, belting a monstrous 219 off 149 balls to break Tendulkar's one-day international record of 200.
"It's great to get past Sachin's record because he has been my role model," the opener said. Tendulkar was up early in Melbourne watching Sehwag join him as the only players to make a one-day-international double century. "I am very happy for him and also the fact that someone who has broken my record is my teammate and an Indian," said Tendulkar.
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar. End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar. Sehwag was humble after the feat, thanking God for looking over him when Darren Sammy dropped him on 170, and admitting the flat pitch helped. "The easy wicket and the short boundaries made it easier," he said.
"I am relieved but also tired because I am an old man now." But at 33, he's the youngest of the quartet of Indian greats to challenge Australia's new breed of bowlers who've been beating up a fragile New Zealand. Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are both 38, while V. V. S. Laxman is 37.
The trio led India's advance party of seven into Melbourne on Thursday, to acclimatise before they open their four-Test tour against a Chairman's XI in Canberra on Thursday. They plan on keeping a low profile until then and will conduct private net sessions in Melbourne before Sehwag and the rest of their teammates join them next week.
Sehwag won't need to make much of an adjustment from the one-day game before the first Test. He plays the same way whether it's 50 overs or five days. He has a remarkable Test strike-rate of 82 and an average of 52. But after being named in the International Cricket Council's greatest team of all time this year, he has gone 10 Tests without a ton and was humbled by a king pair against England at Edgbaston in August.
