'When you're unplayable, you're bound to have success' - Abdul Razzaq reveals how he troubled Sachin Tendulkar

Former Indian skipper Sachin Tendulkar is regarded as one of the best batsmen to have ever played the gentleman’s game. The veteran is the highest run-scorer in the international circuit and had the ability to take down any opposition anywhere in the world. However, there are a few bowlers that managed to get under Tendulkar’s skin and got better off him on a number of occasions. 

Whenever the bowlers who managed dismiss Sachin the most number of times are discussed, the names such as James Anderson, Glenn McGrath, and Brett Lee come to the mind. However, there was one more seamer who posed threat to the Indian legend and dismissed him as many as six times in One Day Internationals. 

The bowler is none other than Pakistan’s decorated pacer Abdul Razzaq. Razzaq was recently involved in an interaction where he revealed the reason behind his success against Sachin Tendulkar. The 41-year-old revealed that he used to bowl in-swing and reverse swing deliveries that were almost unplayable. 

“Naturally, when you have that kind of delivery with yourself in international cricket, or you’re unplayable, you’re bound to have success. Otherwise, the normal bowlers have no swing, they can’t execute yorkers and can’t create any hype,” Razzaq said to Geo News when asked about his success against Tendulkar.

I used to love batting or bowling in tough situations: Abdul Razzaq

“In the beginning, I used to bowl effective in-swing and reverse swing the ball nicely as well. You can’t call it a weakness. You can call it a nice ball. It’s possible that he (Tendulkar) had something else going on in his mind, perhaps he was expecting out-swingers.”

Apart from helping Pakistan win matches with the ball, Razzaq sometimes also played a blinder with the willow to help his team get over the line. The right-hander has a whopping 5080 ODI runs under his belt from 265 matches. When the all-rounder was questioned regarding what he loves more, batting or bowling, Razzaq exclaimed that he just enjoyed leading in pressure situations. 

“I used to be such an observer that I loved leading in situations. I used to love batting or bowling in tough situations,” he added.