Sachin Tendulkar, God of Cricket only was stumped once in his Test career against England in 2001 in Bangalore. Tendulkar batted in 329 innings in his record 200 Test matches but the only time he was stumped against England led by Nasser Hussain.
Nasser Hussain shared the 20 years old incident that is also one of the most talked-about topics of Cricket history, that how they get the wicket of Tendulkar. Sachin was fed up with the leg stump line bowled by England bowlers. Ashley Gills was the spinner who did the job for the England team by sending back Tendulkar to the pavilion.
Giles frequently bowled the balls in the leg-side and made Tendulkar frustrated. When Tendulkar was on 90, he decided to skip down the track to break the shackles but failed to make contact and was stumped first time in his cricket career.
“I wasn’t flying over to India thinking, ‘This is what we’ll do for Sachin’. It evolved as the three-match series went on and we found ourselves going into the last Test one down. As the pitches got flattered and there was nothing in them for our bowlers, I just had to think outside the box as captain.
“When we got to Bangalore it was clear 90 percent of the pitch was flat but outside the right-hander’s leg stump there was a bit of rough and it was spinning out of there,” Hussain wrote in his column for Daily Mail.
Hussain said he sensed that Tendulkar doesn’t like to be bound. It was their part of the plan that they will bowl him on the pads and the idea popped in their minds after looking at the condition of the pitch.
“So I looked at Tendulkar and thought, ‘Where would they prefer Ashley to bowl? The bit where it isn’t spinning or the bit that gives Giles something to play with?’ The plan, then, was for the left-arm spinner Giles to bowl over the wicket into that rough and you could see Tendulkar didn’t like it. It frustrated him. And in the end, he was stumped by keeper James Foster,” Hussain wrote.
“It is harsh on Giles that to an extent he is remembered more for that plan to Tendulkar than for much of what he achieved with England. He was a better bowler than that. But he did it for me as his captain and he did it for his team.
“It was not to the taste of everyone. The then MCC president Ted Dexter said our tactics were against the spirit of cricket and called for a revision of the laws.
“But I was more interested in trying to win a Test for England in difficult conditions against India,” Hussain said.
