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RSSHayden’s Retirement is a Big Blow to Australia: Sehwag
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Australia will have now found a suitable replacement for Matthew Hayden, feels Indian opener Virender Sehwag. Hayden was a batsman of rare ability, for whom, finding a right replacement will be a big job, says the Indian ace opener. Hayden had announced his decision to quit on Tuesday. He drew stumps on a dazzling career as one of the greatest opening batsmen for Aussies side. Sehwag said that his retirement would now be a relief to the bowlers worldwide.
The prolific 37-year-old batsman played 103 tests for the Aussies side between 1994 and 2009, and made a dazzling score of 8,625 runs
at an average of 50.73, including brilliant 30 hundreds. Underlining his class, the International Cricket Council commented on Wednesday that Hayden was joint-10th among all-time test batsmen on ratings points. He also stood 18th in the one-day list. Hayden was dropped after his first test and had to wait for a long time before finally establishing himself as a permanent member of the team in 2000. He forged a devastating partnership with fellow left-hander Justin Langer, scoring tons frequently taking the Kangaroos to numerous wins.
Sehwag said that he has not seen an attacking batsman of Hayden’s calibre. It is sure that Australia will not be able to unearth an opener who can hit 20 centuries in the next eight years. Sehwag said that in his career of eight years he could manage just 15 hundreds. Sehwag, considered one of the hardest strikers of a ball in contemporary cricket, said Australia would definitely miss Hayden in the coming matches. His absence will be felt as happened in the retirements of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath.
Warne, McGrath and Langer decided to quit after the 2006-07 Ashes series. Damien Martin retired during that series and Adam Gilchrist retired a year back. All these have made the Aussies side weak. Australia is now struggling to stay on top of the test cricket rankings after the debacle to India and South Africa in consecutive series.
February 7th, 2009 at 4:53 am
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