Sachin Tendulkar was a skilled prankster in addition to being perhaps the best batsman of all time. Anyone who has played with him will agree, particularly the 2000 class who made their debuts under Sourav Ganguly. Legends abound about Tendulkar pulling his teammates' legs. Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Virender Sehwag, and Virat Kohli have had firsthand experience with it, but their stories pale in contrast to the one that Suresh Raina endured.
From 2006 till the Master Blaster's retirement, Raina and Tendulkar spent time together as teammates. Raina still recalls this one encounter on an aircraft, despite all the ups and downs, including some well-known victories and heartbreaks. Raina remembered how Tendulkar had chosen to amuse himself at his cost while traveling together for a match.
"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.
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The event most likely occurred after July 2010, the year Raina made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in Colombo. Raina joined a distinguished group that includes Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, and Virender Sehwag, and became the 12th Indian batsman to achieve a century on his Test debut.
Raina further revealed Sachin eventually met the air hostess and resolved the problem 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.
There have been many noteworthy batting alliances 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 match ended in a draw.
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