'He's not studying at all...': Sachin Tendulkar's humorous response to Air Hostess as she mistook Indian cricketer for Arjun
Apart from being widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, Sachin Tendulkar is also a master prankster. Anyone who played alongside him especially the 2000 batch that debuted under Sourav Ganguly will vouch for it. Stories of Tendulkar teasing his teammates have become legendary. Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, and Virender Sehwag all experienced it firsthand, but none of their encounters compare to what Suresh Raina went through.
From 2006 until the Master Blaster's retirement, Raina and Tendulkar were teammates. Despite all the ups and downs, Raina vividly recalls this one incident on a plane. They were also involved in some well-known victories and heartbreaks at the same time. Raina recalled the time Tendulkar chose to amuse himself at his expense while they were traveling to a city to play a match.
Suresh Raina recalled a funny story from a flight with Sachin Tendulkar
'We were once going to play a Test match when I was about 18 years old, and I was sitting in business class next to Sachin paaji. The air hostess came over and said, 'Good morning, Sachin sir. How are you?' and assuming I was Arjun Tendulkar, she said something to him about me in passing; Sachin paaji saw a chance to have some fun. He replied, 'Yes, he's not studying at all, what to do? I've even told Anjali (Tendulkar)',' Raina said on the 'Cheeky Singles' show.
The incident most likely occurred after July 2010, the year Raina made his Indian Test debut. Raina joined a distinguished list that includes Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, and Virender Sehwag, and became the 12th Indian batter to score a century in his Test debut against Sri Lanka in Colombo.
Recalling that flight in more detail, Raina said that Sachin eventually took to the skies and resolved the case of mistaken identity, but not before they all laughed heartily about it.
'Later, we went to the section where the other players were sitting, and I blurted, 'Why are you making me sit in business class? You've made me Arjun Tendulkar!' (Sachin) paaji eventually clarified it to air hostess saying, 'He's a part of the Indian cricket team, he is Suresh Raina, not my son'. Paaji loved playing such big pranks sometimes.' Raina mentioned.
Sachin Tendulkar and Suresh Raina have shared some incredible batting partnership
There have been some amazing batting partnership between Raina and Tendulkar, but none more well-known than their 256-run partnership in the same game at Colombo. India reached a massive first-innings total of 707 thanks to 203 runs from Tendulkar and 120 from Raina. The game ended in a draw.
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