Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag
Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag (Image Credit: Twitter)

Former Sri Lanka bowler Muttiah Muralitharan said he had no fear bowling to Indian legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar but Virender Sehwag troubled him a lot during his playing days.

Muralitharan holds the record of taking the most wickets in international cricket with 1347 wickets across all formats in his 19 years of international cricket.

Brian Lara and Virender Sehwag were so difficult to bowl: Muttiah Muralitharan

Muralitharan was a bowler who used to deceive batsmen with his wizardry bowling but to our surprise, the Sri Lankan himself feared bowling to two players and they are former West Indies skipper Brian Lara and Sehwag.

“Some batsmen really troubled me because on the day sometimes they get up in a good mood and everything goes right for them, whatever I tried it doesn’t go right for me. So many batsmen have got hundreds, double-hundred and only Sehwag missed the triple-hundred against us,” Muralitharan told ESPNcricinfo.

“It was so difficult to bowl two people, one is Brian Lara, and the other is Virender Sehwag,” he added.

Sehwag was a fearless opener who would just take the opposition bowlers to cleaners even in Test cricket and he was someone who brought innovations in the traditional batting technique of defensive technique and made the game look entertaining.

Read More  Luke Ronchi blatantly accuses PCB of spreading lies about him joining Pakistan team as their Head Coach

Muralitharan said that Sehwag had a different approach than other batters which would make him dangerous to bowl.

“Sehwag is so dangerous, for him we put deep fielders because I know he would go for his chance. He would go for his instincts and he knows ‘On my day I will attack anyone I want. So what we will do is go for the defensive field and wait for him to make mistake,” Muralitharan said. 

Virender Sehwag, Indian Player
Virender Sehwag (Image Credit: Twitter)

“But what Virender Sehwag does is he makes sure that he will play two hours of the day and make 150 runs or if he plays the entire day he would make 300, that kind of attitude he had. So such kind of players were dangerous for us and our match-winners,” he added. 

Sachin Tendulkar had a weakness playing against off-spin: Muttiah Muralitharan

When Muralitharan was asked about bowling to Sachin Tendulkar, the bowler said he didn’t fear as he did for Sehwag and also mentioned Tendulkar’s weakness while batting.

“For Sachin no fear to bowl because he won’t hurt you as Sehwag can hurt you. But it was very tough to get him out because he will protect his wicket, he is a good reader of the ball. But I felt in my career, Sachin had a small weakness on off-spin,” Muralitharan mentioned.

Muttiah Muralitharan
Muttiah Muralitharan (Image Credit: Twitter)

“He smashes leg-spin but for off-spin somehow he had somehow problem because I got him out so many times and lesser off-spinners got him out so many times. So he had a little bit of weakness that is why I had an advantage over it,” he added. 

Read More  KKR and Rajasthan Royals announce replacements for Prasidh Krishna and Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Muralitharan had dismissed Tendulkar a total of 13 times in his career, only Australia’s Brett Lee has got the better of the great Indian batsman on 14 occasions.

Also Read: The Guy Who’s Technically The Best And I’ve Played Against Is Sachin Tendulkar: Allan Donald