Saqlain Mushtaq Reveals Why He Doesn't Rate Virender Sehwag's Multan Triple Hundred Too Highly

Former Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq said that he doesn't rate Virender Sehwag's triple century at Multan very highly due to the batsman-friendly conditions in offer.

Saqlian believes Tendulkar's knock of 136 in Chennai in 1999 was a better innings because there was an element of battle involved in that match.

"I rate the 130 odd runs that Sachin Tendulkar scored in the 2nd innings in the Chennai Test match ahead of the triple century scored by Virender Sehwag. Because we had gone with full preparation that time. It was a fight, there was a battle," Saqlain said on the Cricket Baaz talk show on YouTube.

"Here (Multan 2004), there was no fight or battle. And it was the 1st innings of the Test match, not the 2nd innings. It was the 1st innings, first day pitch, no preparation. Some good deeds of his parents or his own good deeds worked for him."

The man credited with inventing the 'doosra' further laid bare the kind of turmoil the team was in while preparing for what was a historic series.

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"I feel it was a tailor-made situation for him. Nature was kind on him. I am not saying that he is not a good player, he is a great player, he is a very good player.

"Not because I was injured and Shoaib Akhtar was also injured, wicket was flat, conditions were tough for the bowlers, the whole bowling unit had collapsed. There were issues in the Board, Inzamam was accidently made the captain, someone else was the captain.

"Lot of things were changing, the mind was not set, focus was not there, the preparations were not good. When you have the Ashes, they prepare for that for one year. We were having a series against India and we had no planning, no preparation.

"Sehwag is a very destructive attacking player but I won’t rate that triple hundred. I will say that nature has given that to him on a platter. He has played lot of good knocks.

"You enjoy when you have prepared well and the bowling unit is working fine and conditions are tough for the batsmen."