Sachin Tendulkar had 2 answers, based on his form, for not taking first strike: Sourav Ganguly
Sachin Tendulkar avoided facing the first ball in 50-overs cricket due to 2 particular superstitions, his former opening partner Sourav Ganguly revealed.
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HIGHLIGHTS
- Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly hold the record for the most runs by an opening pair in ODIs
- Tendulkar and Ganguly amassed 8227 runs as India’s opening combination from 176 innings
- Tendulkar took first strike just 47 times out of the 340 ODIs he played as an opener
Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly opened the batting for Team India 176 times in one-day international cricket but it was the latter who mostly took first strike for the team.
Tendulkar avoided facing the first ball in 50-overs cricket due to 2 particular superstitions, his former opening partner Sourav Ganguly revealed.
BCCI president Ganguly stated that Tendulkar always had 2 answers ready for not taking the first strike, based on his current form.
Current India Test opener Mayank Agarwal asked him whether it was true that Tendulkar forced him to take first strike to which Ganguly replied: “Always he did. He had an answer to that and I used to tell him ‘yaar sometimes you also face the first ball’.
“He had 2 answers to it – he believed when his form was good it should continue and that he should remain at the non-striker’s end, and then when his form wasn’t good he said ‘I should remain at the non-striker’s end because it takes the pressure off me’,” Ganguly said on Agarwal’s show Open Nets with Mayank on BCCI.tv.
Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly formed the most-successful opening partnership in ODI history with 8227 runs from 176 innings at an average of 47.55.
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
The duo shared 26 hundred-run partnerships for the first wicket and 29 fifty-run stands together. Their highest opening stand of 258 came against Kenya in an ODI in Paarl in 2001.
Ganguly went on to add that he had to quietly sneak past him and stand at the non-striker’s end whenever he didn’t want to face the first ball.
“He had an answer for both, good form and bad form. Until and unless somedays you walk past him, went and stood at the non-striker’s end and he was already on TV and he would be forced to be at the striker’s end. That has happened one or two times, I’ve just walked past him and stood at the non-striker’s end,” Ganguly revealed.
