The Indian stalwarts, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar can be termed as one of the most successful openers in the history of ODIs as they stitched some of the best opening partnerships for India. The left-right combination wasn’t easy to tackle even for some of the fearsome new-ball bowlers.
However, recently, Ganguly revealed that he always had to face the first ball as Sachin always barred from taking the strike. During a chat with the Indian opener, Mayank Agarwal on bcci.tv, Sourav recalled that some he used to ask Tendulkar to take the strike but would always get two answers as a reply.
When Mayank asked did Tendulkar ever forced Ganguly to take the strike, Dada said, “Always he did. He had an answer to that. I use to tell him, ‘yaar sometimes you also face the first ball’. He had two answers to it, one — he believed that if his form was good, he should continue and remain at the non-striker’s end and then if his form wasn’t good, he said I (Sachin) should remain at the non-striker’s end because it takes the pressure off.”
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He further elaborated, “So, he had an answer for both — good form and bad form. Until and unless someone walked past him and went and stood at the non-striker’s end and he was already on TV and he would be forced to take the strike. That has happened one or two times. I have just walked past him and stood at the non-striker’s end.”
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
Tendulkar and Ganguly opened for as many as 136 innings for India in which they amassed a humungous tally of 6,609 runs (most by a pair of openers in ODIs). Their highest partnership was 258 runs, which came against Kenya in a 2001 ODI in Paarl.
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The two India stalwarts are also leading the list of highest overall partnership runs by a pair. Together they have scored 8,227 runs in 176 innings at an average of 47.55 with a total of 26 partnerships of more than 100 runs.
