The Indian batting duo of Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar is one of the most iconic opening pairs in the history of ODI cricket. Ganguly, who started his career as a middle-order batter, eventually gave up to constant pleading from Tendulkar regarding opening the innings with him. The rest, as they say, is history!
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As an opening pair, both of them added 6,609 runs together in ODIs at an average of 49.32. They had combined for 21 century and 23 half-century partnerships, and a 232-run partnership was their highest as an opening pair. No other opening duo in the game has combined for these many runs together.
Apart from their on-field heroics, both Tendulkar and Ganguly shared a great camaraderie off the field as well. Unlike others, Tendulkar used to refer Ganguly as ‘Dadi’. Both of them used to play together during age-group cricket as well and Ganguly had once revealed how he got scared of Tendulkar’s sleepwalking.
How Sachin Tendulkar convinced Sourav Ganguly to open for India in ODIs
Ganguly played his initial 10 matches in ODI cricket in the middle-order, but he was not getting a lot of success. India, South Africa and Australia were playing in Titan Cup 1996. In the first two matches, Ganguly batted in the middle-order managing to score 31 and 4 across the two innings.
Ganguly had once disclosed that then-captain Tendulkar came to him before the third match asking him to consider opening the batting as he was batting at No. 3 in Test cricket. Ganguly agreed to it, and the starting of a legendary pair had been registered.
“Before I started opening in one-day matches, I used to play in the middle-order. Sachin [Tendulkar] came to me and said ‘You bat at No. 3 in Tests. We do not have an opening batsman, you try and open’. I said ‘Fine, I’ll do it’. From there, that’s how I became an opener,” Ganguly had told Republic Bangla.
Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly century partnership in Titan Cup
India faced South Africa in their third match of the tournament in Jaipur. South Africa batted first and scored 249/6 where batter Daryll Cullinan scored a brilliant century. In reply, India’s opening duo of Tendulkar and Ganguly had a century partnership.
Both of them were opening for the very first time and they added 126 runs for the first wicket. Tendulkar played a knock of 64 (93) and Ganguly scored 54 (104). Despite the partnership, India lost the match by 27 runs.
