Virendra Sehwag - Pride of Jat Community

Virendra Sehwag is one of the most aggressive batsmen in international cricket today. Also known as Viru, he is a right-handed opening batsman and an occasional right-arm off-spin bowler. Sehwag was born on 20th October 1978 in Delhi and played his first One Day International in 1999 and joined the Indian Test cricket team in 2001. In April 2009, Sehwag became the only Indian to be honored as the 'Wisden Leading Cricketer' in the World for his performance in 2008. He became the first player of any nationality to retain the award for 2009. Sehwag was born in a Jat family from Haryana as the son of a grain merchant. He spent his childhood in a bungalow in a joint family with siblings, uncles, aunts and sixteen cousins. Sehwag was the third of four children born to Krishan and mother Krishna Sehwag. His father attributes his interest in cricket to a toy bat which he was given when he was seven months old.
Sehwag attended Arora Vidya School in Delhi and pestered his parents to let him play cricket as he was not academically gifted. His father tried to end his career when he broke a tooth as a child in 1990, but he evaded the ban with a little help from his mother. Sehwag made his debut for Delhi cricket team in first class cricket in the 1997-98 season. He was selected to the North Zone cricket team for the Duleep Trophy the following 1998-99 season, ending fifth in the total run scoring list. The following year he was fourth on the Duleep Trophy run scoring list, including a 274, the highest score of the competition. This was against South Zone at Agartala in just 327 balls and followed a rapid 187 from just 175 in a Ranji Trophy match against Punjab. He was then selected for the U-19 team which toured South Africa. He was seventh in the 2000-01 season with two centuries, but his consistency earned the attention of selectors and he became a regular member in the national team in mid 2001. Sehwag made his Test match debut in 2001 as a middle-order batsman against South Africa with a century to his name, scoring 105. After the home series in 2001-02 against England and Zimbabwe, Sehwag was promoted up the order to open the innings in the 2002 England tour and he has 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, in a 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.