Sourav Ganguly reveals why Sachin Tendulkar never took strike to face the first ball of the match

In a chat with Mayank Agarwal, as part of an episode for BCCI tv known as #DadaOpensWithMayank, Sourav Ganguly revealed why Sachin Tendulkar never took strike on the first ball of the match.

Former India captain and current BCCI president, Ganguly was questioned by India test opener Mayank Agarwal. He was asked whether it was a myth or reality that Sachin would force him to take the strike to face the first ball of the innings in the 50 over format.

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Sourav Ganguly revealed that this, in fact was true and that Sachin refused to face the first ball of the match due to two superstitions.

“Always he did. He had an answer to that. I used to tell him you also face the first ball sometimes. I am always facing the first ball. He had two answers to it. He believed if his form is good it should continue and he should remain at the non-striker’s end. When his form was not good, he used to say I should remain at the non-striker end because it takes the pressure off me.He had an answer for both good form and bad form,” Dada answered to Mayank’s questions.

He went on to reveal that only once or twice during their careers did he manage to make Sachin face the first ball of the innings. “Until and unless someone walked past him and went and stood at the non-striker’s end. And he was already on TV and then would be forced to take the strike,” Ganguly added.

Together, Dada and Tendulkar-hailed by many as the ‘God of cricket’ opened a total of 136 odi innings together amassing 6609 runs which is the most by any opening batting pair in the world.