NEW DELHI: Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has said that Sunday’s World Cup game against Pakistan could pose a challenge to the Indian team that is bigger than even playing in the final.
“The Pakistan game was a high pressure game compared to the final,” Tendulkar said in an interview on Headlines Today news channel about India’s win over its arch rival in the 2011 semifinal at Mohali.
“It’s a different atmosphere altogether.”, the Indian legend added.
Pakistan starts its defense of the World Cup against India at Adelaide on Sunday. It will be the first time that India will be without Tendulkar for a World Cup game against Pakistan, which has lost all its five Cup games to India.
“A Pakistan game is not only about that day. I remember 2003, when we played Pakistan at Centurion, my friends had started talking about it 10 months before that,” said Tendulkar
Tendulkar, who realised a long-time dream when India lifted the trophy beating Sri Lanka at his home ground Wankhede Stadium, said he had considered retiring after India’s first-round exit in 2007 in the West Indies.
“When I came back home, I was so depressed and so upset with the way we had performed. I actually thought of retiring then. I called my brother Ajit over and told him that I do not want to continue. The game has been cruel to us and I want to stop,” he said.
But Tendulkar said it was Ajit who motivated him to continue with the aim of winning the World Cup at home four years later.
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