Hemang Badani recalls the time when he exchanged Javagal Srinath and Sachin Tendulkar’s trousers

Former India cricketer Hemang Badani has recalled a hilarious story from his playing days. Sachin Tendulkar once asked the wicketkeeper to exchange his and Javagal Srinath’s trousers during a One-Day International match against England in 2002.

Tendulkar found out that Javagal Srinath was nervous before the match against England, which was also his final ODI series. So in order to lighten the bowler’s mood, the Master Blaster decided to play the ‘trouser prank.’

“For some strange reason at Cuttack, he [Srinath] was extremely nervous, extremely wobbly, which he normally isn’t,” Badani revealed on his Instagram account. “Java (Javagal Srinath) is extremely vocal and very confident in his normal self, but for some strange reason, he was a little nervous that day.

I wasn’t playing that game. Javagal Srinath, obviously being a 6'2, 6'3, had really long pants and Sachin, being about 5'5, 5'6 had shorter pants. To just try and lighten the mood and to make sure that Srinath got back to normalcy, during practice just before the match, he [Tendulkar] asked me to switch trousers,” he added.

Javagal Srinath bowled an over in Tendulkar's pants

Badani further said Javagal Srinath was so nervous that he didn’t notice he wore Tendulkar’s trousers until the Indian team started laughing on the field.

“Then someone points at his trousers and said, ‘Sri, look at your trousers, they’re so short.’ That’s when he realises that something is wrong. Actually, what has happened after that is, because of this banter and lighter moment, he gets back to being normal and bowls a brilliant spell.”

After the first over, Javagal Srinath went back to the dressing room, changed his pants and went on to bowl a good spell. He conceded 41 runs in nine overs and picked up a wicket as India restricted the visitors to 250/7, but in their chase, fell short of the target by 16 runs.