When Sachin Tendulkar battled physical pain to help India lift 2008 CB series title
Sachin Tendulkar’s stellar exploits during the 2008 Commonwealth Bank tri-series in Australia remain etched in memories. Displaying his high-class batsmanship in the two finals played in Sydney and Brisbane, Tendulkar made scores of 117* and 91 and helped India famously clinch the title.
After an absorbing four-Test series Down Under, in which he made two memorable hundreds at the SCG and the Adelaide Oval, Sachin Tendulkar had a bit of dip in his returns at the start of the tri-series, also featuring Sri Lanka. But the Master Blaster regained his best form at the right time and allowed MS Dhoni’s young team to bag the coveted silverware.
Tendulkar ended the tri-series as the second-highest run-getter, making 399 runs from his 10 innings at an average of 44.33 and strike-rate of 85.25.
Everyone remembers Sachin Tendulkar’s majestic batting in the finals and how he looked the most fluent batter on show at the SCG and Gabba. But hardly anyone outside is aware that the great man battled great discomfort and pain through the series and kept himself going for India’s sake.
When Sachin Tendulkar battled physical pain to help India lift 2008 CB series title
Tendulkar’s opening partner in the two finals, Robin Uthappa, has revealed that the master batsman wasn’t feeling physically 100% but never let that affect his participation in the series.
“You won’t believe it, Sachin Tendulkar… I call him paaji. He played with a lot of pain in that Commonwealth Bank series,” Uthappa said on The Grade Cricketer Podcast. “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.”
Together, the Tendulkar-Uthappa duo gave India bright starts in the twin victories during the best-of-three finals series. Uthappa also revealed a conversation he had with the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, who told him how age tends to catch up with everyone and it gets so much more difficult to manage injuries when you go deeper into the thirties.
“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 said.
Sachin Tendulkar enjoyed an outstanding run as a one-day batsman from the end of the 2007 World Cup to the 2011 World Cup in India, a period where he made 3,264 runs from 68 ODI innings at an average of 51.00 and strike-rate of 89.10. Tendulkar was India’s top run-getter at the 2011 World Cup, scoring 482 runs from 9 innings at an average of 53.56 and strike-rate of 91.98.