Former Australian pacer Jason Gillespie recently talked about his challenges to face the legendary batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. The former tall right-arm fast-bowler also revealed who was the toughest batsman for him among those legends to get out.
The tall Australian fast-bowler Jason Gillespie played the international cricket between 1996 to 2006, when Australia were dominating the world cricket. Despite fitness issues always put him back, Gillespie fought always and sometimes he returned to the game in great ways. He played 71 Tests, 96 ODIs and only T20I where he took 259, 142 and only wicket respectively. Gillespie was an early member of Australia’s World Cup-winning team in the 2003 edition before injury forced him to get ruled out in the middle of that tournament.
I always felt, Sachin Tendulkar was probably a little bit harder to dislodge, in terms of getting his wicket: Jason Gillespie
On last Sunday (19th April), Gillespie celebrated his 45th birthday. He recently shared his experience to bowl against the Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar and Caribbean legend Brian Lara as he felt both were almost equally difficult to get out. However, Gillespie felt Tendulkar was a little more difficult to dismiss than Lara due to having a solid defence.
Gillespie said on Cow Corner Chronicles, “Two different types of players, two equally difficult to get out. I always felt, Sachin was probably a little bit harder to dislodge, in terms of getting his wicket, but I didn’t feel he would take you apart, in quite the same way as Brian.
“I always felt I was in with more of a chance to get Brian out because he was a bit more expansive, with his game. But I found Sachin’s defense was very hard to get through.”
However, Gillespie achieved huge success against Tendulkar than Lara. While he dismissed Tendulkar for eight times in 18 matches (joint-most success for Gillespie against any particular batsman in international career), the Australian only managed to dismiss Lara for thrice in 22 innings.
While the right-handed batsman Tendulkar is the most run-scorer in international cricket history as well as Test and ODI cricket history, the left-handed batsman Lara is still holding the record of the highest score in a Test innings (400*).