Ajit Agarkar was touted to become next Sachin Tendulkar during the early part of his career

Ajit Agarkar played 191 ODIs, 26 Tests and 4 T20 Internationals for India during his illustrious career. He was also the part of India’s squad which won the inaugural T20 World Cup and eventually retired from all forms of the game in 2013. The pace bowler accounted for 349 wickets at the international level and was known as one of the better bowlers for India, especially in the ODI format.

But very few know the fact that Agarkar was touted to be the next Sachin Tendulkar during the early part of his career. He wanted to become batsman and Aakash Chopra reiterated the same recently while chatting with the former Mumbai selector. Interestingly, Ramakant Achrekar was his coach, the same person who trained Sachin Tendulkar.

“Actually, it started because I wanted to become a batsman. In school I used to make runs, our coach was the same Ramakant Achrekar and he must have seen something in me. Sachin Tendulkar was by then the next big thing to come out of his coaching. Pravin Amre and many others also came before Sachin and was doing well. Many used to come out of his academy,” Ajit Agarkar said.

Sachin Tendulkar had gifted Ajit Agarkar his pads and gloves

Speaking about being the next Sachin Tendulkar, Ajit Agarkar cleared that it was the perception of the people then as he was scoring a lot of runs at a very early age just like the former did. Comparing it to modern cricket, the 42-year-old stated that the youngsters these days get to play IPL if they do well at the age of 16.

“I used to make good runs and that was the perception of people. Now when you play well at the age of 16 you go and play IPL but then there was a fixed step to reach the national team. I used to make runs and there was a news going around that there might be a new batsman coming from Mumbai but at that age you think just of progressing in your game,” he added.

Rather the master blaster had gifted Ajit Agarkar his gloves and pads as he hailed from the same school Sachin studied. Funnily, Agarkar regrets not using his pads and wittily felt that he would’ve become a better batsman if he had done so.

“Sachin gave me gloves. We were in the same school and he thought someone is performing well and so he gave me gloves. I didn’t know him much then. I did not use his pad, maybe I could have become a better batsman if I had used his pad,” the former India cricketer said. Ajit Agarkar was actually a decent batsman as he played a few crucial knocks down the order for his country. He has also scored a Test century at Lord’s where even Sachin couldn’t.