“Be like Virender Sehwag”: Kapil Dev once revealed how Sachin Tendulkar could have scored more double centuries in his career

Former Indian all-rounder Kapil Dev was the first Indian captain to win an ICC World Cup. The Indian team made history in the 1983 World Cup, where Dev played one of the best ODI innings against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells.

Dev is famous for his frank opinions about different topics, and he has been through a lot of criticism as well for his controversial comments. He once said that Sachin Tendulkar underachieved in his career considering the amount of talent he possessed. This comment was not taken well by the audience.

There were a lot of news of rifts between Dev and Sunil Gavaskar as well during their playing days. Dev once blamed Gavaskar for dropping him from the squad, whereas Gavaskar also revealed an incident where he talked about his heated exchange with the Indian all-rounder.

Kapil Dev wanted Sachin Tendulkar to bat like Virender Sehwag

Kapil Dev once went on former Indian cricketer WV Raman’s Youtube channel where he again talked about Tendulkar. Dev had a lot of praise for the Master Blaster when he said that he did not see anyone more talented than him in the game. He also said that Tendulkar had everything in him.

However, Dev was critical of Tendulkar for not scoring big hundreds in his career. He said that Tendulkar know how to score hundreds, but he could not convert them to big scores. According to Dev, Tendulkar must have scored at least 5 test triple-centuries and 10 double-centuries.

“Sachin had so much talent, we hadn’t seen it in anyone. Sachin had everything in cricket. He knew how to score hundreds, but didn’t know how to convert those hundreds into double-hundreds and triple-hundreds. Sachin had the talent to make at least five triple-centuries and another 10 double-hundreds.” Dev told WV Raman on his YouTube channel.

Dev insisted that Tendulkar used to play with the mindset of Mumbai cricket. He said that he would have asked Tendulkar to bat like Virender Sehwag in order to score big centuries.

“However, he got caught up in the Mumbai cricket [mindset]: when you score a hundred, make a line and start from zero again. And that’s where I said, ‘No, you are such a ruthless cricketer, be like Virender Sehwag.’” Dev added.

ALSO READ: How Sachin Tendulkar missed his double century in Multan test

Tendulkar finished his Test career with 15,921 runs with the help of 51 centuries and 68 half-centuries. He scored 6 double-centuries in his career but never managed to score a triple-hundred.