Knew he had tennis elbow problems, so I bowled a barrage of bouncers to Sachin Tendulkar: Shoaib Akhtar

Sachin Tendulkar, the name doesn’t need any introduction to the cricket fans around the world. He is rated as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of international cricket. The Mumbai-born player was short in height but he used to rip the opposition bowlers apart with his batting. By the time he retired, fans had already begun acknowledging him with different nicknames like God of Cricket and Master Blaster.

The former World Cup winner was known for his classical batting. But even he went through a rough patch after he sustained a tennis elbow injury that almost ended his career. Though he recovered from the injury, Sachin was restricted to play some shots. And the Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar has revealed how he used to take advantage of it.

Shoaib Akhtar says he respects Sachin Tendulkar a lot

In 2006, Team India toured Pakistan for the three-match Test series. At that time “Rawalpindi Express” was bowling at his best and everyone wanted to watch the clash between him and Sachin Tendulkar. During the interaction with Sanjay Manjrekar, the former speedster said that he was well aware of the fact that Sachin had not fully recovered from his career-threatening injury.

So, he planned to bowl barrage of bouncers to put pressure on him and keep him quiet. “Yes, I would try to outthink him. Like in the 2006 tour of Pakistan, I knew he had tennis elbow problems and he can’t hook or pull me, so I bowled a barrage of bouncers to keep him quiet,” Akhtar told Manjrekar during an ESPNCricinfo’s podcast.

The 44-year-old also added that he had a lot of respect for the batting maestro. As per him, this is the reason he never got aggressive against him during the playing days. In the session, Shoaib Akhtar revealed that Inzamam-ul-Haq used to read his bowling variations, a second before other batsmen. He cited the fact that he could not castle the former captain even once in the nets in 10 years.

Inzamam scored more than 18,000 international runs with the help of 35 tons and 129 half-centuries. In fact, he is also rated as one of the finest batsmen ever played for Pakistan.