Sourav Ganguly has revealed that his former opening batting partner Sachin Tendulkar believed in the theory behind forcing him to open the innings in ODIs. The two great Indian cricketers Ganguly and Sachin opened the batting together in 136 ODI innings for India and brought laurels for the team with their match-winning partnerships.
In the candid chat with the Team India’s current Test opener Mayank Agarwal, Sourav Ganguly was inquired whether it was true that Tendulkar forced him to take the first strike. Replying to which, Ganguly agreed and stated that Tendulkar always had 2 answers ready for not taking the first strike, based on his current form.
“Always he did [stand at non-striker’s end]. And he had an answer to that, and I used to tell him, ‘Sometimes you also face the first ball, I am always facing the first ball’. He had two answers to it – one, he believed when his form was good, it should continue at the non-striker’s end, and when his form wasn’t good he said ‘I should be at the non-striker’s end because it takes the pressure off me’, ” Ganguly said.
Sahin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly’s unbroken ODI opening record:
Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly formed the most successful opening partnership in ODI history with 6609 runs from 136 innings at an average of 49.32. Their highest ODI partnership record is 258 runs.
Overall, Sachin opened in 340 innings across his ODI career, only took the first strike in 47 of those. On the other hand, Sourav Ganguly has opened in 236 innings in ODIs and was at the non-striker’s end in only 76 of them.
However, the two great former Indian openers record still stand erect in the cricket history though it has been over seven years the duo have not don the blue jersey.