The duo of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag easily was one of the best opening pairs in Indian cricket. Their history as batting partners could never give away the secret that Tendulkar initially was doubtful about opening innings with Sehwag for India. Speaking on the What the Duck 3, Tendulkar revealed that when Sehwag joined the team, he would not talk to Tendulkar.
“I remember when Viru first joined the team, he would not talk to me. Then I thought this can't work, we need to talk to each other and if we are batting together I need to make him comfortable. So I told him, ‘let's go get have some food’. Before going, I asked him what he liked. He said 'Paaji, I am a vegetarian'. When I asked why, he revealed that he had been told at home that eating chicken makes you fat,” Tendulkar said.
Earlier, Sehwag recalling his initial days in the Indian cricket team had said how shy he was. “When I first met him [Tendulkar], he just shook my hand and moved on. I thought to myself that I idolise this person and he just shook my hand and walked away. But later when I was a senior and met new players, I did the same, then I realised you cannot get close to a person before knowing him. I was very shy when I first joined the team,” Sehwag had said.
Tendulkar and Sehwag opened for India for a total of 93 ODIs, scoring 3,919 runs at an average of 42.13. They clinched as many as 12 century-stands, 18 fifty-run stands and among all the Indian opening pairs, Tendulkar-Sehwag stand on the fourth place in the list of highest opening partnership runs in international cricket.
