By Qaiser Mohammad Ali, IANS
Mumbai : For Virender Sehwag, who turned 29 Saturday – the day he played the Twenty20 International against Australia here, it has only been happiness and positive developments lately.
After being dropped for the England tour, Sehwag was picked in the Twenty20 squad for the World Championship in South Africa where India won the title. Then he was named captain of one of the three teams for the Challenger Trophy to be held this month in Ahmedabad. And, finally, he was blessed with a son Friday in New Delhi.
On Saturday, he celebrated his birthday with the Indian Twenty20 side and the happy tidings continue.
Sehwag now awaits a recall to the One-Day International and Test teams. A good outing in the Challenger Trophy, to be played during Oct 25-28, would almost ensure his return to the Indian team for the next international assignment. A series against Pakistan at home starts next month.
He would draw inspiration from his sequence of ODI scores of 114, 48, 30, 21, 45, 52 and 8 before he was dropped and would be keen to build on that performance during the Challenger Trophy, which is also played on the limited overs basis, before the ODI team for the series against Pakistan is picked.
Again, luckily for Sehwag the five ODIs – the version in which he has shown consistency lately – will be played first and then the three Tests. Another plus for Sehwag is that he has been immensely successful against Pakistan in Tests and ODIs, having hit the first triple Test century for India in Multan in 2004.
When he arrived at the Taj Mahal hotel Friday night, he was his usual self, receiving congratulations from his teammates on the birth of his son.
So far he has replied to about 200 congratulatory SMSes on his becoming father besides many phone calls.