Sehwag is Test Cricketer of the Year

Virender Sehwag, the India opener, has been named the Test Player of the Year during the 2010 ICC Awards ceremony in Bangalore. He won the award, the first of his career, ahead of Sachin Tendulkar, Dale Steyn and Hashim Amla, who were the other nominees in the category.

"It's fantastic to win the award, to take over the title from Gautam Gambhir," Sehwag said after receiving the prize from Courtney Walsh. "I think I got motivated when Gambhir got this award last time, I was discussing with him that I hope I get it this time and I got it. I'm a huge fan of Test cricket and I love to play it more than Twenty20 or one-day cricket.

"When I was growing up, I was playing lot of 10-over, 12-over games, so I had to score off every ball, same thing I have continued. I followed my instincts and played in the same way in T20, ODI and Tests. It's a great strength to have."

Sehwag scored 1282 runs in ten Tests at an average of 85.46 between August 2009 and 2010, which was the period under consideration for the award. He was also named in the Test Team of the Year, which was captained by MS Dhoni.