Former India cricketers Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar formed one of the best opening pairs in the world. Incidentally, Sachin never faced the strike while opening. Recently, former India skipper Ganguly revealed why Tendulkar never took the charge first up.
Sachin and Ganguly are the ninth most prolific pair in the history of ODIs with 4173 runs in 71 matches at an average of 61.36. They shared 12 century and 16 fifty-plus stands to their name.
Tendulkar never wanted to take strike – Sourav Ganguly
Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly both had the capability to take down any bowling attack on a given day. But Tendulkar always found a reason to not face the first ball. Recently, during a chat with Mayank Agarwal, the BCCI President opened up about his pairing with Sachin as an opener.
“Always he did. He had an answer to that. I used to tell him sometimes you also face the first ball, I am always facing the first ball. He had two answers to it: One – he believed if his form is good it should continue and he should remain at the non-striker’s end.
And when his form was not good he used to say I should remain at the non-striker end because it takes the pressure off me,” Ganguly told Mayank.Â
“So he had an answer for both good form and bad form. Until and unless You walk past him one day and you stood at the non-striker’s end and he would already be on TV and would be forced to be at the striker’s end. That has happened 1-2 times, I just walked past him and stood at the non-striker’s end,” Ganguly added.
Sachin Paji always forced you to take the strike while opening with you in ODIs? Myth ? Reality ?
Listen to what Dada has to say 😄#DadaOpensWithMayank episode coming up soon on https://t.co/uKFHYe2Bag @mayankcricket @SGanguly99 pic.twitter.com/YM0yEatMcE
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 6, 2020
Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar took Indian cricket to greater heights. They shared the dressing room for more than a decade and have a great amount of admiration for each other. Both of them have been a part of many historic victories including the 2002 NatWest Trophy win.
