Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar will go down in history as one of the best opening partnerships to ever grace the sport. The left-right combination was a nightmare for many new-ball bowlers. Ganguly though, revealed that he was “always” the first to face the music as Tendulkar would not take strike. In a chat with Mayank Agarwal on bcci.tv, Sourav Ganguly revealed that he would sometimes ask Tendulkar to take the strike but would always get two answers in return.

“Always he did,” said Ganguly when asked by Mayank Agarwal if Sachin forced him to take strike in ODIs.

“He had an answer to that. I use to tell him, ‘yaar sometimes you also face the first ball’. He had two answers to it, one — he believed that if his form was good, he should continue and remain at the non-striker’s end and then if his form wasn’t good, he said I (Sachin) should remain at the non-striker’s end because it takes the pressure off.

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“So, he had an answer for both — good form and bad form. Until and unless someone 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 take the strike. That has happened one or two times. I have just walked past him and stood at the non-striker’s end,” the former India captain added.

Sachin Paji always forced you to take the strike while opening with you in ODIs? Myth ? Reality ?

Listen to what Dada has to say#DadaOpensWithMayank episode coming up soon on https://t.co/uKFHYe2Bag @mayankcricket @SGanguly99 pic.twitter.com/YM0yEatMcE

— BCCI (@BCCI) July 6, 2020

Tendulkar and Ganguly opened for India in 136 innings, amassing 6,609 runs — most by an opening batting pair in the world in ODIs. Their highest partnership was 258 runs, coming against Kenya in a 2001 ODI in Paarl.

The two India greats also top the list of highest overall partnership runs by a pair. Together they have scored 8,227 runs in 176 innings at an average of 47.55 with a total of 26 100-run partnerships.