Dennis Lillee was the first to acknowledge my batting potential reveals Sachin Tendulkar

Dennis Lillee was the first to acknowledge my batting potential reveals Sachin Tendulkar

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Sachin Tendulkar has revealed that legendary Aussie pacer Dennis Lillee was the first to ask him to take batting over bowling after understanding his hidden potential. Tendulkar wished the Australian legend on his 68th birthday via his Twitter handle while recalling the first time he met him.

Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar ended his career in 2013 becoming the highest run-getter in ODIs and Tests while registering a plethora of records to his name, the most special one being the century of centuries in the international cricket. However, it may not be a well-known fact that Tendulkar saw himself as a fast bowler and was on his way to condition himself to become one but it was the expert eye of Dennis Lillee that made the Mumbaikar rethink his decision.

Tendulkar posted a video wishing the Australian bowling great on his 68th birthday while recalling the day he met the Aussie at the MRF pace foundation 30 years ago that changed his life forever for good.

"Dennis, many, many happy returns for the day," Tendulkar said.

"I can never forget the day I met you in Chennai in 1987. I was there to become a fast bowler but this is something that most of the guys don’t know.

"I was always a batter but while catching the train from Mumbai to Chennai my brother told me: ‘It won’t be a bad idea to carry your batting gear’, because after having bowled for a while you made me just standing there doing nothing, so then I padded up and played against all those fast bowlers. "I actually ended up doing that for the rest of the week.

"You correctly said: ‘I think this young lad should go out and bat, forget about bowling’.

"But that desire continued and instead of bowling in matches I used to fulfil all my desires in the nets bowling from 17 yards, sometimes also pretending to be Dennis Lillee in the nets." 

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