Feroz Shah Kotla Gate renamed after Virender Sehwag

Virender Sehwag has been one of the prodigal batsmen who donned the Indian jersey. Known for his sheer brute, the Nawab of Najafgarh rejuvenated the world to the ideology of fearless batting. Be it any format of the game, the swashbuckling opener has never been dormant and was well known for decimating any bowling unit on his day.

And earlier today, the 39-year-old veteran was honoured by the Delhi District Cricket Association as it named the Gate 2 of the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium as the “Virender Sehwag” gate. The gate itself contains, among other things, a cut-out of Sehwag, with the line “Legends are forever”, and a panel recounting statistics and achievements from his remarkable international career spanning 14 years.

Madan Lal, head of DDCA also praised Sehwag for his contributions to Indian cricket and called him a game-changer. The nomenclature was done on the eve of the first T20 international between India and New Zealand at Feroz Shah Kotla. Coincidentally, this was also the day Sehwag recorded figures of 5/104 at Kotla against Australia, which remains his career-best figures in an innings.

Speaking to the media, an overwhelmed Sehwag was quoted as saying, “It’s an honor to have a gate named after me at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi. I remember when I started off, I used to daily cross this gate and now it has my name. There will be many more cricketers from this state who will have stands, gates, pavilions named after them but I am glad that I am the first one. I feel very fortunate and would like to thank the DDCA for this honor.”

He is a role model for many budding cricketers as is known to be one of the most attacking openers in cricket. Sehwag believes that any young cricketer entering the stadium through the gate will get motivated by reading his name itself.