Sourav Ganguly revealed why Sachi Tendulkar was never keen to face the first ball in ODI. Ganguly who opened in ODI with Tendulkar 176 times for India took first strike most of the times.
Ganguly-Tendulkar, the record-making duo
The opening pair of Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar has gone to the history of ODI cricketers. They have given birth to a number of unforgettable innings and moments to the Indian cricketer. Both opened for India in 50-overs cricket 176 times but it was the current BCCI president who faced the first ball in most of the games. In a recent interview with Mayank Agarwal, Ganguly recalled how Tendulkar used to force him to do it always. “Always he did. He had an answer to that and I used to tell him ‘yaar sometimes you also face the first ball’.
The duo was the most successful opening partners in the ODI history with 8227 runs from 176 innings at an average of 47.55. They recorded 26 100+ partnerships for the first wicket and 29 fifty-run stands between them. In 2001 they registered their highest opening stand of 258 which came against Kenya.
Ganguly recalls opening partnership with Tendulkar
BCCI president Ganguly revealed that Tendulkar had his own two reasons for forcing Ganguly to 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 further told on BCCI TV’s interview, “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.”
