Sachin Tendulkar Was Battling Immense Pain During 2008 CB Series Final, Reveals Robin Uthappa
Robin Uthappa, who made solid partnerships with Sachin in that series, recently said in an interview that years ago Sachin Tendulkar had batted with a lot of pain through the series but still ended up helping India achieve a memorable series win.
Sachin Tendulkar is regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the world. In his long career of 24 years, the Master Blaster attained many milestones. Many batting records made by Sachin Tendukar are still intact.
Indian cricket team defeating a formidable Australian side 2-0 in the Commonwealth Bank Series in 2008 is arguably one of team India's most epic wins in white-ball cricket. A sub-continent cricket team beating heavyweight Australia in their home soil was unbelievable back then but Sachin Tendulkar's batting masterclass powered India to their biggest series win of all time.
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In the Commonwealth Bank tri-series between India, Australia and Sri Lanka, the Men in Blue defeated Sri Lanka to join Aussies in a best of three-finals and wrapped up the series 2-0 after winning both first finals. Tendulkar had scored 399 runs at an average of 44.33 in 10 matches of that series.
Robin Uthappa, who made solid partnerships with Sachin in that series, recently said in an interview that years ago Sachin Tendulkar had batted with a lot of pain through the series but still ended up helping India achieve a memorable series win.
"You won't believe it, Sachin Tendulkar… I call him paaji. He played with a lot of pain in that Commonwealth Bank series. He was not ok physically and he played through a lot of pain. There were times when he would wince in pain. We would ask him if he's ok and he'll be like 'I'm fine'. He would always put the requirement of the team ahead and he would always do that. He played through a lot of pain," Uthappa said on The Grade Cricketer Podcast.
"I remember we had a conversation with him in that series where he said 'Robin, it's so hard to keep yourself fit after 32, 33 and 34, because it gets that much more challenging, Injuries start taking a toll. I was just 21 or 22 when I had that conversation and I said 'no paaji, you're just saying this'. He said 'Robin, when you're 35, let's have a conversation and see if you agree with me or not.' And today at 35, I want to tell you, he was bang on," Uthappa added.
Sachin made his debut in the Indian team at a very young age and continued to represent the country till the age of 39. In the last few years of his career, Sachin had to suffer injury many times, but still he used to bat despite being in immense pain.