‘Made me the bowler I was,’: Sreesanth names two India legends who helped him immensely

S Sreesanth narrated how India legends Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar helped him during his career and made him the bowler he was.

India’s 2006 tour of South Africa holds a special place in S Sreesanth’s heart, for he finished the series with an impressive tally of 29 wickets from three Tests, including a five-wicket-haul in the first match at Johannesburg which was India’s maiden Test win on South Africa’s soil.

S Sreesanth

The pacer grabbed a five-wicket haul in the first innings itself but it was an effort that Sreesanth says, wouldn’t have been possible without the contributions of his former India teammates Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.

“I still remember we had a tour match in Potchefstroom before the Test series. Sourav Ganguly was making a comeback into the team and he would take me out early to the nets before anyone. I wasn’t too good against the left-handers and bowling those lengthy spells to Dada in the nets helped me a lot,” Sreesanth was quoted as saying by India Today.

Sreesanth carried the momentum forward in the second Test in Durban, where he picked up a four-wicket-haul in each innings. However, his efforts weren’t enough to stop South Africa from beating India by 174 runs to level the series. Sreesanth, whose ban ends in September of this year, reveals how he benefited from Tendulkar’s advice, which played an impactful role in his immense success against Graeme Smith and Ashwell Prince.

“If you would notice, I bowled quite well to the South African left-handers, especially Graeme Smith. After every wicket, I would go to Sachin paaji, because he too would keep telling me from mid-off or mid-on where to bowl. I was the Man-of-the-Match, but it was all because of these legends,” Sreesanth stated further.

“I didn’t know India had never won a Test in South Africa and it was only later that I got to know. I used to bowl against these legends in the nets and that made me the bowlers I was.”