I Didn’t Know About Sachin Tendulkar, Was Lost In My Own World – Shoaib Akhtar

Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar admitted that he didn’t know about Sachin Tendulkar when he started playing cricket in 1997.

Tendulkar, who allured the cricket fans with his captivating shots, is the highest run-scorer in Tests and ODIs. The former Indian player has scored 3,4357 runs from 664 games across all formats

On the other hand, Akhtar claimed 444 international wickets from 224 matches across all formats and head his own shares of battles against Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar on the pitch.

Saqlain Mushtaq told me about Sachin Tendulkar and his stature

Akhtar got the better of Tendulkar four times in 15 encounters in One-Day Internationals, and twice in red-ball cricket. The ‘Rawalpindi Express’ said it was his teammate Saqlain Mushtaq who told him about Sachin Tendulkar in the Indian team.

“Saqlain (Mushtaq) told me about Sachin Tendulkar and his stature. I didn’t know about him. I was lost in my own world. I didn’t know. I only knew what I will do and what the batter was thinking,” Akhtar said in a video posted by Star Sports on Sunday.

Shoaib Akhtar explains what fast bowling meant to him

A bowler who can bowl anything above 140 kilometres per hour speed is reckoned to be a great fast bowler. Akhtar had clocked 161.3 kph against England during a 2003 World Cup fixture.

It has been a decade since the Rawalpindi-born pacer took retirement from international cricket but his extraordinary record is yet to be challenged.

“The big difference between your fast bowlers and ours was that we used to look for excuses to bowl fast. Whenever I used to realise that the ball was reverse-swinging, I thought, ‘If I get a spell here, I will run through the batters’. I will just take the five wickets there and win the match for Pakistan. You can’t be a star without being a match-winner. We used to win games for the country,” Akhtar said.

Akhtar played three matches for Asia Lions under Misbah-ul-Haq’s captaincy in the Legends League Cricket and picked two wickets as they ended runners-up to World Giants, who won by 25 runs in the final.

Also Read: “Legend Already”: Shoaib Akhtar When A Fan Asked Him To Describe Virat Kohli In One Word