'Intentionally wanted to hit Sachin Tendulkar and...', Shoaib Akhtar makes shocking revelation

India vs Pakistan is one of the biggest rivalries in the world of cricket and Sachin Tendulkar vs Shoaib Akhtar is the most talked-about players battle in the game. Sachin dominated Akhtar on most occasions which used to frustrate the Pakistani pacer. In a recent interview, Akhtar revealed that he thought of intentionally hurting Sachin during the 2001 series.

"I'm revealing this for the first time. I intentionally wanted to hit Sachin in that Test match. I was determined that I had to wound Sachin in that Test at any cost. Inzamam kept telling me that bowl was in front of the wickets, but I wanted to hit Sachin. So I hit him on his helmet and I felt he was done. But when I watched the video, I saw Sachin had managed to save his head," said Akhtar told Sportskeeda.

From one end, Akhtar was trying his level best to injure Indian batsman, M Asif was bowling a superb spell. Praising the Pakistan pacer, Akhtar said that he has never seen anyone bowl as good as Asif on that day. "I again tried to injure him. But on another side, Indian batting was facing music in the shape of Asif. I had rarely seen anyone bowl as good as the way Asif bowled on that particular day," he added.

This was the same Test match where Indian pacer Irfan Pathan took the hat-trick in the first over of the Test match. India dominated the first session but Kamran Akmal's century helped them bounce back. Interestingly, Shoaib Akhtar chipped in with the bat in the first innings by scoring 45 runs in 60 balls. Pakistan won by 341 runs.