Sehwag's batting used to worry me the most as a captain: Inzamam

Photo: AP

New Delhi: Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq revealed the batsman who he feared the most in his playing days.

The veteran of 120 Tests stated that dashing Indian opener Virender Sehwag used to give him sleepless nights in his captaincy days. "Sehwag was a dangerous player because if he scored 80 odd runs it meant his team would end up scoring 300 or more in a Test or ODI. The more time he spent time at the crease the more he dented the morale of the bowlers, which was worrying for me as captain," Inzamam said on Geo Sports channel. Virender Sehwag has scored 1276 runs in 9 Test matches against Pakistan at an average of a whopping 91.14, including a triple hundred at Multan. Inzamam also lamented that the Asians have a habit of questioning their own teams and players while England and Australia always back their cricketers. "If they don't do well there we start questioning the ability of our teams and players ourselves. We must not forget Australia lost 3-0 in Sri Lanka, we beat England 3-0 in the past in the UAE." On the suspension of bilateral cricket between Pakistan and India, Inzamam said it has hurt Pakistan cricket a lot. "Overall it is not good for cricket and for both countries not to play bilateral series. But from a Pakistani perspective it has done us more damage as already foreign teams are also not touring Pakistan and our young players are not getting chances to play matches against international sides before playing for the senior team. "People want to see Indo-Pak matches but there is nothing one can do about it until things are normal at the government level. Personally I always enjoyed the challenge of playing against India and it made a better player. To me a Indo-Pak series has always been even bigger than the Ashes," concluded Inzamam.