There’s always been a touch of the comical about Virender Sehwag. So, it was perhaps fitting that even at the end of his cricketing career, a stray comment about retirement sent cricket fans into a tizzy with everyone scurrying to pay tributes to the “Nawab of Najafgarh”.

Except, he hasn’t retired. Well not yet anyway, as Sehwag clarified. He intends to see out his commitments to Haryana in the Ranji Trophy this season before taking a call.

When the call does come though, it will be a sobering moment for Indian cricket. Coming on the heels of Zaheer Khan bowing out – he was one of Sehwag’s contemporaries – Viru's retirement will signify the fading away of the final traces of the pre-Dhoni era.

Sehwag's numbers, especially in Test cricket, are incredible. He's the only Indian to have scored two triple centuries (one of them being the fastest ever triple century in Tests), six double centuries in Tests and an average which dipped below 50 only towards the end of his career.

But as any cricket watcher will know, Sehwag’s impact went beyond just numbers – it was the way he could completely change the course of a game with his explosive batting, deflate the opposition and galvanise his own team.

Glimpses of the future were in evidence in his first Test century, scored on his Test debut, as the video above demonstrates.

At Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 2001, Sehwag joined his idol Sachin Tendulkar with India floundering at 68/4. Over the next 47.5 overs, Sehwag matched the Little Master stroke for strike in a brilliant rearguard. Tendulkar scored 155, and Sehwag, 105.

India still lost the match, but a marker had been set down, and Viru had provided an early glimpse of what was to come.