Ganguly reveals Tendulkar had two answers for not taking first strike

When two of Indian cricket’s giants, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, opened for the national side in One-Day Internationals, it was the latter who almost always took the first strike. It turns out that it was deliberate, and Tendulkar forced Ganguly to face the first ball in ODIs.

In cricketer Mayank Agarwal’s chat show on bcci.tv, Open Nets with Mayank, the BCCI president revealed that based on his form, Tendulkar had two answers ready for not taking the first strike in the 50-overs format.

“Did Sachin Paaji force you to take strike when you opened the batting in ODIs?” Mayank asked Ganguly.

“Always, he did. He had an answer to that, I used to tell ‘yaar, sometimes you also face the first ball’. I’m always facing the first ball,” the former India captain said.

“He had two answers to it—one is, he believed when his form was good, it should continue, 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’. So he had an answer for both—good form and bad form,” quipped Ganguly.

“Until and unless somebody walked past him and 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. And that has happened one or two times. I just walked past him and stood at the non-striker’s end,” he added while Mayank chuckled.

Tendulkar and Ganguly have opened for India 176 times in One-Day Internationals. The duo formed the most successful opening partnership in ODI history with 8,227 runs at an average of 47.55.