Sachin Tendulkar always asked me to take first strike: Sourav Ganguly

Sourav Ganguly, the former Indian cricketer, has said that Sachin Tendulkar always wanted him to take first strike during a match. Ganguly, the current BCCI president, tried to convince him to face the first ball, but the Master Blaster didn’t budge and came up with various reasons.

Ganguly and Tendulkar tormented a number of teams as a pair, especially in ODI cricket. In the 50-overs format, the legendary batting pair amassed 8,227 runs from 176 matches at an average of 47.55 with 26 century and 29 half-century stands.

The 47-year-old Ganguly made the revelations about Tendulkar while speaking to Mayank Agarwal on the latter’s show.

He had an answer to both good and bad form, says Sourav Ganguly

“Yes, he always asked me to take the strike. He always had an answer to that, I used to tell him that sometimes you also face the first ball, always I take the strike,” Ganguly was quoted as saying during the chat, uploaded by the BCCI on its Twitter handle.

“He had two answers to that, one if his form was good, he believed that it should continue and he should be at the non-striker’s end, and if he was out of form, then he used to say that I should stay at the non-striker’s end because it takes the pressure,” he added.

“He had an answer to both good and bad form, until and unless you went past him and stood at the non-striker’s end, and the match was already on TV and then he would be forced to take the strike, it did happen once or twice,” Ganguly added.

Ganguly and Sachin’s camaraderie as a pair could be comprehended from the fact that among the current pairs, no one is close to them. Aaron Finch and David Warner have 3,297 runs together, but are not even halfway towards Sachin and Ganguly’s tally.

As far as individual careers are concerned, Sachin is currently the leading run-scorer in international cricket, amassing over 34,000 runs. He also has 100 international centuries and even after seven years following his retirement, a number of his records has remained intact. As far as Ganguly is concerned, he went to become one of India’s most successful captains.