Sachin Tendulkar recalls sleepless night ahead of 2003 World Cup encounter against Pakistan

Every cricket fan remembers the epic encounter between India and Pakistan at the 2003 ODI World Cup. The fabulous innings of Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, and Rahul Dravid led team India to a marvelous victory against their arch-rivals.

Sachin Tendulkar was undoubtedly the biggest star of the game as he scored a fabulous 98 runs off 75 deliveries. However, no matter how calm and composed the Master Blaster may have looked on the pitch, he was barely holding onto his nerves the night before. Talking about the same, Tendulkar reflected on the night before the match, saying that he could barely get some sleep.

"I had a sleepless night before the match because you know India and Pakistan is always a big game. When people got to know they had started talking about it, saying 'this game India to have no matter what happens in other matches'. So, I said what do you mean? There was that pressure, expectations were there," Tendulkar said at the India Today Conclave 2023.

It should not be about how many days it lasts: Tendulkar on Test cricket

Tendulkar touched upon a variety of topics; he also talked about the relevancy of Test cricket. He also opined on how Test cricket can remain the number one format going forward.

"You need to understand one thing. Test cricket should be engaging, and it should not be about how many days it lasts. We are meant to play on different surfaces.. seaming conditions, in different swinging conditions, with different kinds of balls," Tendulkar said. 

"That is what makes Test cricket interesting. For me, the most important factor is the kind of surfaces we play on. If we have two formats which are tilted in favor of batters... One is T20, where there is action literally every ball, batters are looking to attack. In ODIs, totals of 310 or 320 are normal because of the various new rules being introduced," he added.