‘Not to degrade, demean anyone’: Virender Sehwag clarifies post on Dhruv Jurel after outrage

Former India cricketer Virender Sehwag—widely considered one of the most destructive openers of his era—Sunday clarified his cryptic post on Dhruv Jurel for his "outstanding batting skills and temperament" after the youngster scored a magnificent knock of 90 runs of 149 balls to bail out India on Day 3 of the 4th Test against England in Ranchi. Jurel added 77 runs, alongside Kuldeep Yadav for the 8th wicket, helping India cross the 300-run mark.

After Jurel’s heroic inning, Sehwag took to microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter) to praise the Team India wicketkeeper. However, his post irked some of the Team India fans as they felt that he (Sehwag) had targeted Sarfaraz Khan and some other young players.

"No media hype, no drama, just some outstanding skills and quietly showed great temperament in a very difficult situation. Very Well done Dhruv Jurel. Best wishes," Sehwag had written earlier.

The post went viral and generated 1 million views, 34K likes, 5.3K retweets and 991 comments since posted in the afternoon today.

Social Media Reaction: 

But this post his post irked some of the Team India fans.

After the tweet went viral, the former opener issued a clarification saying the post was not intended to demean anyone, adding that he only wanted equal hype for all players.

“Not to degrade or demean anyone, but hype should be on performance and be equal. Some guys have bowled brilliantly, some have batted exceptionally but haven’t got the hype they deserve. Akash Deep was outstanding here, Yashasvi has been brilliant through the series and so was Sarfaraz at Rajkot and Dhruv Jurel in all his opportunities. Hype sabko karo,” Sehwag wrote.

“When it comes to hype, one of the least hyped guys is Kuldeep Yadav. Been exceptional for many years, but never got a online fan club or people to hype him as the next big thing. Deserves a lot more credit and hype than he gets,” Sehwag wrote in another tweet.