Fondly known as the Master Blaster, Sachin Tendulkar is widely regarded as the greatest batsman to have played for India.
During his illustrious cricket career, Tendulkar was tested against a number of great fast bowlers and he scored plenty of runs against them.
Whether it is Wasim Akram, Glenn McGrath, Waqar Younis, Allan Donald or speed merchants such as Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar, Sachin proved his mettle against everyone on all kinds of surfaces.
However, former Pakistan pacer Mohammad Asif on Tuesday (May 26) revealed there was a time when Tendulkar struggled against the raw pace of Akhtar.
Asif, who was banned for seven years for his proven involvement in the 2010 spot-fixing scandal in England, claimed that the Indian maestro had ‘closed his eyes’ while facing a couple of bouncers from the Rawalpindi Express during the third Test in Karachi in 2006.
“When the match started, Irfan Pathan claimed a hat-trick in the first over itself. Our morale was down. Kamran Akmal scored a century lower down the order. We scored around 240 runs. When we started bowling, Shoaib Akhtar bowled at express pace in that match. I was standing at square leg near the umpire and I myself saw that Tendulkar closed his eyes while facing one or two bouncers bowled by Shoaib. The Indians were playing on the back foot and we didn’t allow them to score even 240 in the first innings. We snatched victory from jaws of defeat,” Asif said on Pakistani show The Burgerz.
It is not the first time that a Pakistani cricketer has spoken ill about the great Sachin Tendulkar. In his 2011-released autobiography, Shoaib Akhtar himself had questioned Tendulkar’s match finishing abilities.
"....Vivian Richards, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara and the likes of them are great batsmen who dominated with the bat and were truly match-winners. Initially, when I bowled against Sachin, I found these qualities missing. He might have had more runs and records, he lacked the ability to finish the game," he wrote in his book and also accused that Tendulkar was uncomfortable against his scorching pace on a slow Faisalabad track during India's tour of Pakistan in 2006.
"I bowled (Sachin) a particularly fast ball which he, to my amazement didn't even touch. He walked away! That was the first time, I saw him walk away from me-- that, too, on the slow track at Faisalabad. It got my hunting instincts up and in the next match I hit him on the head and he couldn't score after that."
