'I Said Harsh Words To Sachin Tendulkar And In Reply, He...': Saqlain Mushtaq Reveals An Untold IND vs PAK Story

Here's a great rivalry story between Tendulkar and Saqlain from late 90s when the Pakistan spinner had tried to play mental games on Indian batting star and how his tactic went completely wrong

Source: Twitter

The India vs Pakistan cricket contests are rare these days. Back in 90s, India used to play Pakistan more often and those used to be high-intensity matchs. The tension used to be at its peak and many harsh words used to be exchanged between players of two teams. The history of these two countries is such that it was difficult to control emotions. The fans across the border know about the Gautam Gambhir vs Shahid Afridi spat, Shoaib Akhtar vs Harbhajan Singh banter and of course TheRawalpindi Express' jibes at Virender Sehwag who also knew how to return him with some really good one-liners. Not to forget, the epic Javed Miandad vs Kiran More incident in 1992 World Cup.

Former Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq has now revealed a new story that involves India great Sachin Tendulkar. Mushtaq recently said in a podcast that he once said some harsh words to Sachin, who was quite hurt by this action. But Sachin's 'nice' words dented Saqlain more than his harsh words did to India batter.

#OnThisDay in 1999, an epic Test unfolded in Chennai.

Sachin Tendulkar's brilliant 136 brought __ within touching distance of a victory. But Saqlain Mushtaq had the last laugh when he dismissed Tendulkar and swept up the tail to set up a 12-run win for __! pic.twitter.com/LM3w9P36yr — ICC (@ICC) January 31, 2020

"I once had an incident with Sachin. We went to Canada. I had come there after playing County cricket in England. I was a young boy then and I was in my own world of bowling. So after playing County I became a little cocky. Sachin was a very intelligent cricketer. I bowled a very tight first over to him and sledged him. I used some harsh words. He came to me and said very nicely "Saqi... I never thought you would do this. And you don't even appear the kind of person who would say such words. I thought you're a very decent person". He said it so nicely and believe me for the next 4 overs, his words hit me. I was so consumed by what he said to me that before I could realise, he had done his job. He got set while batting," Saqlain said on The Nadir Ali podcast.

Saqlain further said Tendulkar had applied a reverse pscyhology on him by speaking to him softly. The Pakistani spinner kept on thinking about the 'niceness' of the words of Tendulkar and took his attention and focus off cricket. That led to Tendulkar hitting him for boundaries every now and then. Saqlain said that his boundaries then felt like a slap on his face. The 46-year-old added that Tendulkar used a different tactic to mentally affect him and it worked wonders for the Indian batting star.