‘Sachin my inspiration, we can’t be compared’
viratsays Comparing me with someone for whom I started playing cricket, there’s no comparison in terms of skill. On comparison with Sachin
We have great understanding. If we’re running between the wickets and he says two, I run blindly. On understanding with Dhoni
MUMBAI: It won’t be a surprise if someone who grew up int he 1990s credits Sachin Tendulkar for his passion for cricket. Every generation has its icon. And the pintsized batsman taking on the world’ s fierce st bowlers was why it was easy for the cricket-fanatic country to move on from Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev.
Skipper Virat Kohli too was among those who tried to emu late Tendulkar. Chants of “Sachin, Sachin” may have given way to backing for the flamboyant captain every time he walks out onto the park, but the man turning 29 on Sunday feels a comparison only lowers the stature of Sachin Tendulkar.
Speaking in the ‘Breakfast With Champions’ programme, Kohl is aid :“One must draw comparisons between people within whom it can be drawn. Comparing me with someone for whom I started playing cricket, there’ s no comparison in terms of skill; he’s the most complete bats man ever. I’ve always said this, he doesn’t deserve this… Because of what he has given to us, he doesn’t deserve to be compared with us… This generation, no chance!”
Here called his first interaction with Tendulk arin the Indian dressing room when Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel and Irfan Pathan played a prank on him.
“I’d probably told someone I was extremely tense and wanted to meet Tendulk ar. Mu naf Pa tel, the biggest instigator of this prank, was like, ‘Well you’ll have to bow before him the first time you meet. It’s what every junior cricketer who comes in does. Up to you, we don’t take responsibility later.’ I was convinced. Honestly. So the first time I met him, he was sitting right opposite and I was awestruck. It did take some time for me to realise there isn’t a television set between the two of us and I met him and bowed as asked. It was than that he made me realise what my seniors had done with me.”