Sachin Tendulkar played international cricket for nearly 25 years and stood tall on the expectations of billions of Indians every time. The expectations only got bigger the more he played for India and even with other cricketers playing around him, everyone followed Tendulkar’s success and failure closely.
Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag who idolized Tendulkar in his playing days and played with him for over a decade has in a recent interview spoken about how Tendulkar survived for nearly 25 years in international cricket and played at the highest level.
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He spoke about how long before the likes of MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, Tendulkar understood the importance of fitness and made it a part of his routine. With the likes of Sehwag, and Yuvraj Singh bursting onto the scene in 2000 and Kohli and Dhoni a few years later, it was Tendulkar’s fitness that allowed him to compete with his fellow youngsters.
Sachin Tendulkar Kept Thinking What New Can He Add To His Batting: Virender Sehwag
“Why do you think Sachin Tendulkar was able to play for so many years? It’s because each year he kept thinking what new can I add to my batting or I can become better. If I can’t add in batting, I should maintain my fitness in such a way that I can convert 100s into 200s. When we came in 2000s, he would concentrate on fitness more than us. Later, in 2008 when Virat Kohli came in, Sachin would compete with him. He paid more attention to fitness than him,” Sehwag told YouTuber Ranveer Allahabadia on his channel ‘Beer Biceps’.
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Virender Sehwag Shares Incredible Story Of Sachin Tendulkar’s Strength
In the chat, Sehwag further went ahead and gave an example of Sachin Tendulkar’s incredible strength Back in the day, weight training wasn’t as common for Indian cricketers as it is today, but whatever little Tendulkar used to do, went a long way in prolonging his career. One such training method of his, left Sehwag surprised.
“I will tell you an incident. Once we were in a gym and there were dumbbells ranging from 1 kg to 20 kg. We had to pick up each and flex our wrists 10 times. After doing it for 5-6 times, I didn’t have the strength but Sachin did it without stopping from 1 to 20 kgs and then back from 20 kg to 1 kg. It was an exercise for his forearms so he could lift his heavy bat and didn’t tire. We couldn’t go beyond 5kg. So just imagine. By then he had scored already 10-15000 runs and scored some 70 centuries. Why did he need to do all this? Because he knew that if he could keep his body fit, he could play even longer. He was able to play till 40 because he was the fittest in our group” said Sehwag.
The Master Blaster retired from international cricket in 2013 and is still the highest run-scoter in international cricket in Tests (15921) and ODIs (18426). He is still the only cricketer with hundred international hundreds to his credit.
