6 Indian legends who bid goodbye this decade 

#4. Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag

India’s most swashbuckling opener since Kris Srikkanth, Virender Sehwag called it a day in October 2015 after an illustrious career that lasted a decade-and-a-half. Although his aggressive style of batting was naturally suited to the shorter formats, it was in Tests, as an opener, that Sehwag found greater success. The antithesis of Sunil Gavaskar, India’s most renowned Test opener, Sehwag was equally effective.

In 104 Tests, Sehwag amassed 8,586 runs at an average of 49.34 with 23 hundreds and 32 fifties. Sehwag was the first Indian batsman to register a triple hundred, and remains the only Indian with two 300-plus scores to his name. In fact, he remains the only batsman in international cricket with two triple hundreds and one 290-plus score. The maverick batsman scored 284 runs in day against Sri Lanka during the Mumbai Test (Brabourne Stadium) in December 2009. Sehwag would be indebted to former skipper Sourav Ganguly, who pushed him to open as there was no place in the middle-order.

In 251 ODIs, Sehwag scored 8,273 runs at average of 35.05 with 15 hundreds and 38 fifties. He finished with an amazing strike rate of 104.33. The Nawab of Najafgarh was the second batsman after Sachin Tendulkar to register an ODI double hundred. In T20Is, he scored 394 runs in 14 games. As a part-time off-spinner, he picked up 40 Tests and 96 one-day scalps.

Sehwag struggled with form and eye-sight issues in his last few years. He last played a Test against Australia at Hyderabad in March 2013, a couple of months after his last ODI against Pakistan at Kolkata.