Robin Uthappa has revealed that Sachin Tendulkar was battling an insurmountable amount of pain through the CB tri-series but ended up playing the entire tournament. He played 10 matches in the tri-series, scoring 399 runs at an average of 44.33.
India’s Commonwealth Bank tri-series win in Australia in the year 2008 is clearly one of their biggest series wins of all time. India overcame Sri Lanka to join Australia in a best of three-finals and led by Sachin Tendulkar’s stupendous batting in the first two finals, wrapped up the series without the need of a third final.
Robin Uthappa: Sachin Tendulkar Played With A Lot Of Pain In The Commonwealth Bank Series In Australia In 2008
Robin Uthappa, who was part of that Indian squad, opened the batting along with Sachin Tendulkar in both finals, adding 50 and 94 runs in the two finals respectively. Today, years later, Robin Uthappa has revealed that Sachin Tendulkar was battling an insurmountable amount of pain through the series but ended up playing the entire tournament. He played 10 matches in the tri-series, scoring 399 runs at an average of 44.33.
“You won’t believe it, Sachin Tendulkar… I call him paaji. He played with a lot of pain in that Commonwealth Bank series. He was not ok physically and he played through a lot of pain. There were times when he would wince in pain. We would ask him if he’s ok and he’ll be like ‘I’m fine’. He would always put the requirement of the team ahead and he would always do that. He played through a lot of pain,” Uthappa said on The Grade Cricketer Podcast.
Photograph: Niklas Halle’n/AFP/Getty Images
Sachin Tendulkar lit up both finals, scoring an unbeaten 117 in Sydney – his first ODI century in Australia – while missing out back-to-back hundreds when he was out for 91 at the MCG.
Australia was overwhelming favourites to win the series and fans and plaudits had already predicted that the hosts would not need the third final to seal the win. As things turned out, India beat Australia 2-0 and the third final was not needed. India won by 6 wickets chasing 240 in the 1st final and won the 2nd final by 9 runs.
Robin Uthappa: Sachin Tendulkar Admitted It’s So Hard To Keep Oneself Fit After 32 Years Of Age
Legend has it that if it were to go down to the third final, chances were high that he would not have played the decider as he was in so much pain.
“I remember we had a conversation with him in that series where he said ‘Robin, it’s so hard to keep yourself fit after 32, 33, and 34, because it gets that much more challenging, Injuries start taking a toll. I was just 21 or 22 when I had that conversation and I said ‘no paaji, you’re just saying this’. He said ‘Robin, when you’re 35, let’s have a conversation and see if you agree with me or not.’ And today at 35, I want to tell you, he was bang on,” Uthappa added.
Robin Uthappa made his One Day International debut in the seventh and final match of the English tour of India in April 2006. He had a successful debut, making 86 as an opening batsman before being dismissed run out. It was the highest score for an Indian debutant in a limited-overs match. He played 46 ODIs and 13 T20Is scoring 934 and 249 runs respectively averaging around 25 in both formats.
The unfailingly consistent and proven match-winner, Robin Uthappa, who has scored 4607 IPL runs, was traded to Chennai Super Kings by the Rajasthan Royals ahead of IPL 2021 Player Auction. He had joined the Royals ahead of the 2020 season and played 12 games for them. Earlier, he was one of KKR’s star-turns in the title-winning efforts in 2012 and 2014 with aggregate run tallies of 405 and 660 runs in the respective editions.