Virender Sehwag has built an exceptional career based on his unwavering desire to push boundaries and his genius for doing so. He has racked up Test runs at a faster rate than anyone in cricket history, with limited footwork but a full aim. Bowlers must still be optimistic when facing a batsman who plays too many strokes; it's just that Sehwag is even more optimistic. Sehwag grew up in Najafgarh, where his family owned a flour mill, as a starry-eyed youngster who aspired to be Sachin Tendulkar like so many others of his age. Indeed, he may have been mistaken for his injured idol when he scored his first one-day century in Sri Lanka, filling in for him against New Zealand. He had the same back-foot punch on the offside, the minimalistic straight drive, and the wristy whip to the leg.
And on his Test debut, on a fiery pitch in Bloemfontein, he matched the master stroke for stroke as they both blazed away to hundreds. But soon he emerged his own man, and not long after Tendulkar was playing a supporting, and somewhat calming, hand as Sehwag romped away to a triple-hundred, the first by an Indian, in Multan, bringing it up with a six. Two Tests ago, he had been dismissed trying the same stroke five short of what would have been his first Test double-hundred.