Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid ignored as Virender Sehwag picks 'Asia's best batter'

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Virender Sehwag has been a stalwart of Indian cricket. The destructive opener has amassed more than 17000 runs for India across all formats.

During his India career, Sehwag played with other legends of the game like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and many more. Sehwag has often spoken highly of the aforementioned players in the past, but in a recent interview, he had a different view.

In an interview with Gaurav Kapoor in the show Breakfast with Champions, Sehwag was asked about his transformative series in Pakistan. India toured the neighbouring country in 2004 and that shaped up to be a pivotal moment of Sehwag's career, where he scored his maiden Test triple century.

The Indian opener scored 309 runs in the first Test in Multan, a series which India won 2-1 under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly. But one player who captivated Sehwag's mind in that tour was then Pakistan captain Inzamam Ul Haq.

Despite Sehwag and Sachin's terrific record as the opening pair, the Delhi-born star is still in awe of the lanky Pakistani player.

"Everyone talks about Sachin Tendulkar but Inzamam-Ul-Haq is Asia's biggest middle-order batsman. See Tendulkar was above the league of batsmen. So he doesn't count. But when it comes to the most superior-middle order batsman across India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, I have never seen anyone better than him (Inzi)," Sehwag said in the show.

Inzamam is a stalwart of the game. The Pakistani player was not just a fantastic batter, but an excellent captain as well. During his stint as Pakistan captain from 2003 to 2007, they were a formidable side and a 58 pc win rate for Inzamam as Pakistan captain is only bettered by Wasim Akram.

Inzamam was a destructive batter in his days and was one of the most fearsome players. And Sehwag says the former Pakistan player was the first who didn't panic even at higher asking rates back in those days.

"In that era - 2003-04 - he used to talk about scoring 8 an over. He would tell his partner, 'Don't worry. You'll score easily'. Means 80 runs in 10 overs. Other teams would panic but he was always too confident," Sehwag added.