Kolkata: It seems bygones are bygones for Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni. The two who reportedly haven’t been on the best of terms seems to have buried the hatchet. Dhoni who recently gave up captaincy from the limited overs format, visited the Sehwag International School at Jhajjar, Haryana. An elated Sehwag posted a picture of the two on Twitter saying, “Thank you @msdhoni for encouraging all at @SehwagSchool. A day to remember for everyone who was present for the rest of their lives.”
It was quite heartening to see the two explosive batsmen posing for a photo after ages. There have been stories that Sehwag somewhat blamed Dhoni for his exit from the Indian cricket team. In fact, during a felicitation at the Feroz Shah Kotla in Delhi after his retirement, Sehwag acknowledged all the skippers he played under except Dhoni that raised eyebrows. Dhoni however had paid rich tributes to the Sultan of Multan, as Sehwag is called, on his Twitter handle after the latter decided to hang up his boots.
Though, Sehwag has always denied any rift between the two, there were strong indications that all was not well. However, at the commentary box, Sehwag, a former Indian captain too, always talks highly of Dhoni. About the rift, Sehwag was quoted by ESPN Cricinfo in January last year, “We had a good relationship. People complained that I didn’t thank him but I thanked all my colleagues. So that includes him. We went to London to play a charity game this year and had a good chat,” the former India opener added. “That shows that we are friends because only friends have a chat, or else you mind your own business. We spoke about Indian cricket and strategies and we had a good time.”
Sehwag who was the then captain Rahul Dravid’s deputy would have taken over from The Wall after he stepped down. But it was Dhoni who was made the skipper in the T20 World Cup in 2007, after the Big Three, Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar opted out of the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup.
Dravid later relinquished captaincy in all formats, and Dhoni was preferred to Sehwag as the leader in the ODI format too. He was later made the Test captain after Anil Kumble’s retirement leaving Sehwag nowhere. Sehwag incidentally, was left out of the XI, in the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup final that India won. In the 2009 T20 World Cup, relations touched an all-time low and Dhoni had to bring all his team members to the press conference to assuage any wrong notion.
Dhoni overall, has always maintained his silence on his so-called relation with Sehwag. Whatever the truth is, it was a pleasant sight, seeing Dhoni and Sehwag smiling for a cause.