Virender Sehwag is one of the best openers in the history of Test cricket but we wouldn’t have been able to witness his magic if his India captain Sourav Ganguly didn’t believe in his ability.

Sehwag made his international debut for India in an ODI against Pakistan in 1999, under the leadership of Ajay Jadeja. However, he started off at No.6 in Test cricket and he opened for the first time under Ganguly’s leadership during the tour of England in 2002. The rest, as we all know, is history.

“He was such a big player but didn’t get a chance in the batting order. I told him during the England tour, ‘no point in sitting in reserves. See if you can open the batting?’ He didn’t agree to in initially, said he’s never done it and is a middle order batsman. But see, from there, he became one of the greatest. After Gavaskar, I haven’t seen a better opening batsman in Test cricket in India than him,” Ganguly said in an interview with The Republic Bangla.

Sehwag amassed a total of 8586 runs in  104 Test matches, at an excellent average of 49.34. He scored 23 hundreds and 32 fifties. Apart from that, he has 40 Test wickets to his name as well.

Ganguly also started remembering the tour of Australia in 2000, after which he was appointed the captain for the first time. India lost all three Test matches in that tour and won just one ODI in the tri-series under Sachin Tendulkar’s leadership. The Indian team also lost the Test series at home against South Africa following that tour. It was after this series, that the change in the mindset of the Indian team started happening.

“I have this thing that if you give me responsibility, I will give my best shot. I don’t know what it is. When Sachin quit captaincy in 1999 (2000), I didn’t even know I would be taking charge. Back then Sachin and I were of the same age, no one could think someone other than Sachin could become India’s captain. He did not want to do it, so I took over and I did.”