Veteran India opener Virender Sehwag walked down memory lane and talked about the fitness regime of batting great Sachin Tendulkar. Sehwag formed one of the most successful opening partnerships with Tendulkar in white-ball cricket. The two are close friends and shared great camaraderie on the field as opening partners.
Tendulkar is widely regarded as the greatest batter to ever play the game as he has broke several records and take them to another level. He is the only batter to score 100 international centuries and scored 15921 Test runs, while he amassed 18426 runs in the ODIs. The reason behind Tendulkar’s breathtaking numbers – longevity and adaptability.
The Master Blasters made several adjustments to his game to prolong his career as he started playing international cricket in 1989 and announced his retirement in 2013.
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Sehwag pointed out that Tendulkar was very focused towards fitness and he would compete with everyone in the squad for that including Virat Kohli who made his debut in 2008.
“Why do you think Sachin Tendulkar was able to play for so many years? It’s because each year he kept thinking what new can I add to my batting or I can become better. If I can’t add in batting, I should maintain my fitness in such a way that I can convert 100s into 200s. When we came in 2000s, he would concentrate on fitness more than us. Later, in 2008 when Virat Kohli came in, Sachin would compete with him. He paid more attention to fitness than him," Sehwag told YouTuber Ranveer Allahabadia on his channel ‘Beer Biceps’.
Sehwag also recalled an incident where Tendulkar stunned him with his fitness program to get his wrist strong as he used to play with a heavy bat.
“I will tell you an incident. Once we were in a gym and there were dumbbells ranging from 1 kg to 20 kg. We had to pick up each and flex our wrists 10 times. After doing it for 5-6 times, I didn’t have the strength but Sachin did it without stopping from 1 to 20 kgs and then back from 20 kg to 1 kg. It was an exercise for his forearms so he could lift his heavy bat and didn’t tire. We couldn’t go beyond 5kg. So just imagine. By then he had scored already 10-15000 runs and scored some 70 centuries. Why did he need to do all this? Because he knew that if he could keep his body fit, he could play even longer. He was able to play till 40 because he was the fittest in our group," he said.
The veteran opener further said that Tendulkar used to live on the 10th floor and he used to run up and down the stairs from the ground floor to his house to strengthen his legs.
“I have not seen this but only heard that his house was on the 10th floor so he used to run up and down the stairs and used to do it 100 times a day. With that kind of running, the power he was able to generate in his legs would be unbelievable," added Sehwag.
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