“He was being too kind,” Razzaq hails Tendulkar’s humility for acknowledging he was a tough bowler to face

Razzaq dismissed the Indian legend as many as six times during his playing days.

Sachin Tendulkar is widely regarded as one of the greatest batters of all time. During his illustrious career spanning 24 years, Tendulkar broke several records. He played 200 Tests and 463 ODIs for India, scoring the world record number of runs (15921 in Tests and 18426 in ODIs) and centuries (51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs).

Sachin also holds the record for being the first man to score 10,000 runs in ODI cricket, first and only batter to score 100 international centuries, first male cricketer to score a double ton in ODIs, most matches played in both formats among others.

While Tendulkar dominated most of the bowlers during his playing career, there were some who troubled him as well.

One such nemesis of Tendulkar was the former Pakistan all-rounder Abdul Razzaq, who dismissed the Indian legend as many as six times.

In the past, Tendulkar has acknowledged that Razzaq was a tough bowler to face and the latter hailed the former for his humility and said he was too kind to take his name.

“First of all, Sachin Tendulkar was and will always remain a world-class batsman. However, the star that he was and the kind of fan following which he had, 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, Ambrose and Walsh, Muralitharan and Shane Warne. So he didn’t need to. It was his greatness. The words he chose for me - and I’ve said this earlier as well - he was being too kind. Not once; he said it quite a few times. Even Sehwag did. A bunny is someone who constantly troubles a batter. But I never gloated in it too much," he said on The Nadir Ali podcast.

Razzaq, who played 46 Tests, 265 ODIs and 32 T20Is for Pakistan, also recalled getting the better of Tendulkar during his playing days.

“When the ball swings, even the greatest of batters get troubled. Sachin Tendulkar was a one-man army for the Indian team. Whenever we played against India, our seniors always told us to get Sachin’s wicket. So he was always a target. In fact, there was a time when in the CB Series in Australia when I got him out. In 2006, the Indian team then came to Karachi in which Irfan Pathan picked a hat-trick and we somehow took the total to 240-odd," he added.