Toppling Australia not easy - Sehwag

As the race to become the No. 1 Test team hots up, Virender Sehwag - who today won the Cricinfo's Test Batting Performance of the Year award in a ceremony in Delhi - believes it is going to be no easy task for India or South Africa to knock Australia off the top spot.

"I think it's going to be difficult to become the number one side because we still have Australia and South Africa ahead of us. And as the saying goes, sustaining your place at the top is always more difficult than reaching there," Sehwag said. "As of now, if we win the series against New Zealand, we might have a chance to become the number one. But once you get there, you have to make sure that you don't lose a match and a series. So it will be quite difficult to sustain. But we are ready for the challenge."

Sehwag, who won his award for the unbeaten 201 against Sri Lanka last year, said though he had scored two triple-centuries in his Test career, he would rate the particular innings in Galle as his best.

"So many people ask me which one is my best knock and I point to this one. I carried my bat through to emulate Sunil Gavaskar", he said. "Both my triple centuries in Pakistan and Chennai came on good tracks and I could feel on both occasions that the opposition simply didn't have it in them to get me out. But here we were losing wickets regularly and still I managed to stay not out."

On that occasion, he was facing Sri Lanka's spin duo of Muttiah Muralitharan and Ajantha Mendis, and he said the former proved to be the bigger threat, even as the other batsmen struggled against Mendis. "To be honest, during the Sri Lanka tour, I was more worried about Murali and his doosra," he said.

"During that knock, I was picking Mendis' deliveries off the hand and got to know which ball he would bowl. Besides, I was attacking him as well. When you attack a bowler, it creates doubt in his mind. I was hitting him through covers and picked his googly and offspin quite well, hitting him through long on and deep midwicket.

"I was backing myself and when I back myself, I can hit boundaries at will, no matter where you station the fielders."

Sehwag, who is known for his aggressive approach to batting, said Muralitharan and Glenn McGrath were the bowlers whom he found difficult to score boundaries off.

"I always dreamt of playing against McGrath but got just one series at home. I found I could not hit him for a boundary whenever I wanted, he kept such tight line and length," he said. "Against Murali too, I realised you have to wait for a bad ball or find a vacant area to hit a four. Otherwise there is not a bowler whom I cannot hit for a four if I want."

Dropped from the Test team back in early 2007, Sehwag has not put a foot wrong since his return to the side during India's tour of Australia in January 2008. However, he dismissed suggestions that it had any major effect on his batting philosophy.

"You have seen me play after the comeback and I don't think you see any change in my approach," he said. "Of course the mindset has changed a bit. I knew I had to prove myself again and in one match, there was a full session when I didn't hit a single four. Besides, I gave due respect to the new ball."

Admitting it was not easy to sit out and watch the match on television, he said: "It really hurt me. One day I was sitting with my wife and watching the team play when she said 'had you been in the team, we would have been in England and not in Najafgarh'. She was right and it hurt me."