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'Credit for making Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman goes to him': Ex-Pakistan captain on Azharuddin's greatness
Latif credited former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin for shaping Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman. While Sachin made his India debut under Krisnamachari Srikkanth in 1989, he played a lot of cricket under Azharuddin's captaincy in the early part of his career.
For the better part of the late nineties and the majority of the early 2000s, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, and VVS Laxman were the batting mainstays of India. Together, they formed a batting unit that had the ability to score against any opposition in every condition. To a generation of India, Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman were much more than cricket heroes, they were their idols. Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif believes that one former India captain deserves credit for shaping them all.
Latif credited former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin for shaping Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman. While Sachin made his India debut under Krisnamachari Srikkanth in 1989, he played a lot of cricket under Azharuddin's captaincy in the early part of his career.
Latif, the former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter in fact, credited Azharuddin for promoting Tendulkar to open the batting in white-ball cricket, which changed his career.
"He came up the order and didn't look back ever since and he didn't stop. He had already played a lot of matches maybe 70 or something before opening the batting. Starting from 1989-90, he scored his first ODI hundred in 1994. A lot of credit must go to Mohammed Azharuddin. He deserves credit for making four-five great Indian players. Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman," Latif said on his YouTube channel.
Ganguly and Dravid both their Test and ODI debuts under Azharuddin's captaincy while Laxman played his first ODI under Tendulkar but made his Test debut when Azhar was back as the skipper.
Azharuddin, who is still the only Indian to captain in three ODI World Cups, was one of the country's most successful captains before Ganguly broke his record and then MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli took Indian cricket to new heights.
Latif, who played a lot of cricket against Tendulkar, kept among the greatest of all times. "Tendulkar is one of the greatest in the history of the game. Don Bradman, Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, and Jacques Kallis they are among the greatest ever," he added.
