India`s iconic ODI opening pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly opened the innings together in 176 innings and the duo added 8227 runs at an average of 47.55 in these innings but Ganguly, who is now BCCI president, said on Tuesday (May 12) that he and Sachin could have added at least another 4000 runs with the current ODI rules.


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The International Cricket Council (ICC) remembered the great Indian duo of Tendulkar and Ganguly on Tuesday and reminded the fans about the above mentioned statistics on their official Twitter handle. "No other pair has crossed even 6,000 runs together in ODIs," the tweet read.



'Master Blaster' Tendulkar also responded to ICC's tweet saying he and Ganguly would have probably scored more runs had the current rules applied during their playing days.


"This brings back wonderful memories Dadi. How many more do you think we would`ve been able to score with the restriction of four fielders outside the ring and two new balls?" tweeted Tendulkar.



Ganguly was quick to respond to Tendulkar and said: "Another 4000 or so...2 new balls...wow...sounds like a cover drive flying to the boundary in the first over of the game...for the remaining 50 overs."



It is to be noted that these days an ODI inning is played with two new white-balls from each end. There are field restrictions too in which an ODI inning is divided into three powerplays.


In the first powerplay from overs 1-10, only two fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle, while in the next 30 overs, i.e. from 11-40, four fielders are allowed. In the last 10 overs, only five fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle.


It may be recalled that Tendulkar has always criticised the usage of two new balls in an ODI inning. "Having 2 new balls in one-day cricket is a perfect recipe for disaster as each ball is not given the time to get old enough to reverse. We haven`t seen reverse swing, an integral part of the death overs, for a long time," he had said in 2018.