Ganguly reveals why Tendulkar never took strike on first ball

Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar

Former India skipper and current BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has revealed why Sachin Tendulkar never took strike on the first ball of a cricket match. Ganguly said that it was he who alwaysused to take the strike when the duo came out to open the batting for India.

"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 told opening batsman Mayank Agarwal in a video posted by the official Twitter handle of BCCI.

"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.

Ganguly, however, said that Tendulkar did end up taking strike once or twice and it was only because Ganguly himself stood at the non-striker's end.

"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 said.

Ganguly and Tendulkar stitched together 8,227 runs in 176 innings for Men in Blue in ODIs with an average of 47.55. No other pair has crossed even 6,000 runs together in ODIs.

Tendulkar has the most number of runs in the longest format of the game, amassing 15,921 runs. Along the way, Tendulkar scored 51 Test centuries, most by any player.

Things are no different in ODI cricket as Tendulkar atop the list of most runs in this format as well. He has accumulated 18,426 runs in ODI which includes 49 tons.

Tendulkar represented the country in six World Cups during his career that lasted for 24 years. He was the part of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad.

On the other hand, Ganguly went on to become one of the most successful Indian skippers. Under his leadership, India defeated Pakistan in Pakistan for the first time in a Test series. He also guided India to the finals of the 2003 Cricket World Cup.

Ganguly played 113 Tests and 311 ODIs. The swashbuckling left-handed batsman scored 18,575 runs across all formats in his international career.

In October 2019, Ganguly became the president of the BCCI.

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