Sunil Gavaskar, who was Tendulkar’s idol growing up, recognized Sachin’s potential early in his career.
Gavaskar often praised Tendulkar’s batting skills, discipline, and work ethic, seeing him as the torchbearer of Indian cricket after his own era.
Gavaskar once famously predicted that Tendulkar would break many records in international cricket, which turned out to be accurate as Sachin went on to surpass Gavaskar’s own record of 34 Test centuries.
In fact, an old video has been viral on the internet which has Gavaskar predicting a bright future for Tendulkar, who is sitting beside him.
Gavaskar says in the video, “I for one know that if at the end of his career, he does not get a minimum of 15,000 runs and 40 Test centuries, I shall personally go and strangle him. 20 years down the road my hands will not have the strength so he might still survive, but I think I will deputize somebody to do that for me. He’s got that much talent.”
Turning towards Tendulkar, Gavaskar adds, “Sachin I hope you will not let me down, not let Indian cricket down.”
And with a smile on his face, Tendulkar says, “I’ll be trying my best.”
Tendulkar has always spoken highly of Gavaskar, referring to him as one of his inspirations. Tendulkar admired Gavaskar’s technical brilliance and resilience during his playing days and often acknowledged Gavaskar’s role in shaping Indian cricket.
Their relationship is based on a shared love for the game and mutual respect, with Tendulkar viewing Gavaskar as a mentor figure and Gavaskar being proud of Tendulkar’s accomplishments.
And as far as Gavaskar’s expectations are concerned, Tendulkar more than fulfilled them by finishing with 15921 runs and 51 hundreds from 200 Test matches and 18426 runs from 463 ODIs.