Former Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar is arguably one of the greatest players to ever grace the game. He is the highest run-scorer in the history of ODI cricket and has scored the most centuries in the format as well. Although, he was once asked to reconsider his ODI career by former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly.
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Tendulkar was a part of the ICC 2011 World Cup title-winning squad. However, after winning the tournament, he was skipping the ODI series. In fact, India won the World Cup in April 2011, whereas Tendulkar played his next series in February 2012. It was the Commonwealth Bank tri-series between Australia, India and Sri Lanka in Australia.
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Ganguly, who retired from international cricket in 2008, had said that Tendulkar is not helping the team by missing so many tournaments. He said that the balance of the team is getting affected by this as they are not able to settle down with a stable combination.
Sachin Tendulkar was once asked to reconsider his ODI career by Sourav Ganguly
Ganguly was not mincing his words, and he had insisted that Tendulkar should think if he is really ‘good enough’ to continue playing white-ball cricket. He revealed that he wanted Tendulkar to retire from the format after the World Cup only. Ganguly believed that Tendulkar achieved everything in the format and should vacant the spot.
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Tendulkar struggled in the CB series as well, where he scored just 143 runs in seven innings at 20.42 without any half-century. Ganguly even said that the selectors would not be able to ask Tendulkar to step down due to his stature.
“Sachin has to ask himself whether he is good enough to play one-day cricket day in and day out; whether it’s helping him miss tournaments and playing a one-day series after eight-nine months,” Ganguly had told news channel Headlines Today.
“It affects everyone’s form if Tendulkar keeps coming in and going out of one-day tournaments.”
Sachin Tendulkar announced ODI retirement in 2012
Tendulkar played his last ODI match in the Asia Cup 2012 against Pakistan, where he scored a half-century. During the same tournament, he became the first player in history to score 100 international centuries. Tendulkar scored his 99th century in the 2011 World Cup, whereas his 100th came against Bangladesh after more than a year.
