‘I was batting around 150’: Virender Sehwag recalls when Pakistan batsman asked him to sing Kishore Kumar song

Everyone recalls Virender Sehwag as one of the best opening batsmen India have ever produced. The right-handed batsman ruled in all three formats and his explosive style of batting left top bowling line-ups bamboozled. But for many years, not many realised that Sehwag, who looked absolutely ruthless in the middle, used to sing songs while batting.

In a recent chat on Cricbuzz, a fan asked Sehwag if he thinks any other player who might be singing like him while batting. The former India star picked Chris Gayle’s name - though he added that if Gayle is singing, he would singing an English song, while Sehwag used to sing Hindi songs.

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This led to the moderator of the chat Arjun Pandit ask Sehwag about what was his favourite song to sing while he was batting.

“I used to sing too many songs while batting. But my favourite song was ‘chala jaata hoon kisi ke dil mein, dhadakte dil ke, taraane lie.’ Because it was one song that I could sing irrespective of whatever mood I am in, and it would lift my mood,” Sehwag said.

“Sometimes, when I was getting runs, I would be singing Bollywood songs like ‘chittiyan kalaiyaan’. But when I was not being able to score runs, then I would even remember ‘bhagwan ke bhajan’,” he further added.

Pandi then asked Sehwag to recall any incident when a player heard him singing while batting. The batsman recalled an incident during a match against Pakistan in Bangalore, when Pakistan batsman Yasir Hameed came to ask him about the same.

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“When I used to play, no one would know that I sing songs while playing. But it has happened once during India-Pakistan series, I was batting around 150 in Bangalore.

“Yasir Hameed was standing at short leg. He asked me ‘Viru bhai, you sing while batting as well’, so I told him, ‘yes, of course’. So he requested me to sing Kishor Kumar’s song,” Sehwag recalled.

“So, I entertained Pakistan cricketers with my batting, but also entertained them with my singing,” the former India batsman said.

Sehwag played 104 Tests for India in which he scored 8,586 runs at an average of 49.3. He also played 251 ODIs in which he scored 8,273 runs at an average of 35.