"Never understood Sachin's need to take my name" - Abdul Razzaq on his success rate against the great Sachin Tendulkar
Former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq was one of the bowlers that Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar always found a bit challenging to face.
Every batter, no matter how successful the career has been, has had some or the other bowler that they have just not been able to fully dominate. For Tendulkar, Razzaq was one of them.
However, Razzaq was very modest about it when asked on 'The Nadir Ali Podcast' about his experience of having tasted success against Tendulkar. The former all-rounder got the Indian legend's wicket six times in ODIs.
Here's what Abdul Razzaq had to say after hearing Sachin Tendulkar's comments on him:
"Sachin didn't need to say it (that Razzaq was a tough bowler to face). I never understood Sachin's need to take my name.
"He could have named anyone - Glenn McGrath, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis, [Curtly] Ambrose and [Courtney] Walsh, [Muttiah] Muralitharan and Shane Warne. So he didn't need to. It was his greatness."
He added:
"The words he chose for me - and I've said this earlier as well - he was being too kind. A bunny is someone who constantly troubles a batter. But I never gloated in it too much."
Abdul Razzaq remembers his favorite dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar back in 2006
Out of all the occasions where Abdul Razzaq got the better of Sachin Tendulkar, his most memorable one was during the India-Pakistan Karachi Test in 2006. Razzaq spoke about how keeping things simple helped him dismiss the great batter.
On this, he stated:
"When Sachin batted, we had [Mohammad] Asif, [Mohammad] Sami and myself. When they all finished their spell, only two overs were remaining in the day. Younis Khan, who was the captain, signalled that I had to bowl the over to Tendulkar.
"I had no such thought in my mind so said to myself 'What is Younis thinking?' When I got the ball in my hands, I realised it was Tendulkar in front. And believe me, I just pitched the ball in the right area and Tendulkar was bowled.
"If you look at the match, from the clip, he got out in my first over."
When a legendary batter like Tendulkar speaks openly about the difficulty he faced against Razzaq, that is a testament to the bowler's accuracy. The all-rounder ended his career with 409 wickets in 343 matches across formats.