Sachin's googlies troubled me more than any of the great leg spinners I had faced, claims former Pakistan skipper

Update: 2020-02-25 20:31 IST

Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq heaped praise on legendary Sachin Tendulkar saying the Indian was "born for cricket."

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Inzamam admitted that he did not struggle to read googlies bowled by any of great leg spinners but Sachin always managed to trouble him with his leg-spin. The Pakistani cricketer, who recently resigned from the post of the national selector, went on to add that he is waiting to see who'll break "Sachin's mountains of runs."

"He was born for cricket. I always believed cricket and he were made for each other. I'm talking about the ever great Sachin Tendulkar. It still amazes me that at a tender age of 16-17, he made his international debut and did such great things. This is only possible by some extraordinary cricketer, in fact, if there is anything above extraordinary then that is Sachin.

It's easier said than done. He was playing against the likes of Waqar (Younis) and Wasim (Akram) on his debut at 16 years of age. The kind of cricket he played against that bowling attack was startling," Inzamam said.

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Tendulkar's decorated career spanned across 24 years and he bowed out of the sport officially in 2013 having amassed 34,357 international runs from a combined 664 games (200 Tests, 463 ODIs and one T20I). He is the leading run-scorer on the international level with Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara with next in the list with 28,016 career runs.

The Master Blaster is also the only cricketer to have recorded a 100 international centuries.

"The second biggest quality I believe was his records. During that era, the concept of scoring this many runs wasn't even there. The great players used to be finished with 8-8.5 thousand runs. Only Sunil Gavaskar had scored 10 thousand runs and it seemed that record will never be broken. But Sachin broke all records of scoring runs. Now I'm waiting to see who will break Sachin's mountain of runs," added Inzamam.

The Pakistani cricketer pointed out Tendulkar's bowling abilities citing them as the proof of his geniuses.

"He was such a genius cricketer that he could bowl leg-spin, off-spin, medium pace. I had faced many great leg-spinners, never had troubles in reading their googlies but it was only Sachin who gave me troubles and got me out many times.

I don't think there has been a player like him in cricket, maybe someone in the future who will score this many runs. Sachin should have continued playing. He used to be so enjoyable to watch. He should have never gone away from cricket," Inzamam further explained.

The ex PCB chief also mentioned that Tendulkar had good enough mental strength to score under pressure. "He was mentally so tough. I'm saying this because when Sachin used to come out to bat, he was always under pressure. I have never seen more fan following of a cricketer than Sachin's. He had fans all around the world. There was pressure on him to score in every innings," the Multan-born added further on his YouTube channel.

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