One of former Indian opener Virender Sehwag’s candid comments has gone viral on the internet. Sehwag received incredible flak from cricket fans for allegedly saying that he refused to teach David Miller how to play spin during their time together at Punjab Kings, formerly known as Kings XI Punjab.
A comment now viral on X states that Sehwag refused to teach Miller how to bat against spin as the South African batsman wanted to learn the art of spin ahead of South Africa’s upcoming series against India.
“When I was mentoring Punjab in the IPL, Miller asked me how to play off-spin. I deliberately didn’t tell him because South Africa had a series against India after that,” Sehwag was quoted as saying.
The post drew strong criticism from fans who questioned Virender Sehwag’s integrity as a mentor in the professional team.
“Sehwag was dishonest in his role as a mentor. It’s self-incrimination,” wrote one user on X.
“It’s one thing to be so unprofessional. It’s another thing to brag about it. But nothing surprises me anymore,” added another.
But did Sehwag really say that or is this another example of a fake quote attributed to a popular former player to attract attention?
A simple verification reveals that the quote attributed to Virender Sehwag is from the 2025 Indian Premier League season. Sehwag, who worked as a Cricbuzz analyst that year, made the comments after the Punjab Kings’ match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on 20 April.
In the video, Sehwag hit out at overseas players who, according to him, come to India to party during the IPL.
While he mentioned Miller asking for rough pitches for anti-spin practice during the IPL, he never said anything about refusing to train him.
Sehwag, on the other hand, was much harsher on Glenn Maxwell, stating that the Australian all-rounder was a non-serious cricketer.
“Maxwell, Livingstone are not hungry anymore. They are coming to India to spend their holidays. It’s not like they love their teams or are excited for them to win matches. They haven’t won any trophy yet and they have to do it this year,” said Virender Sehwag.
“I played with a lot of overseas players, maybe one or two of them were hungry. These other guys just talk and don’t perform on the pitch,” he added.
Virender Sehwag and Glenn Maxwell have a history together in the Indian Premier League. During Maxwell’s previous stint with Punjab Kings, he reportedly had an altercation with Sehwag, who was the team’s oldest player at the time.
In 2024, Maxwell’s book contained some bombshell allegations against Sehwag, revealing that they no longer see eye to eye. In the book, Maxwell recalled the tumultuous period and claimed that Sehwag’s monopoly on team selection damaged the side.
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Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
02 March 2026 21:16 IST
