On Wednesday, the legendary Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar revealed that his decision not to play the cover drive during his famous double century at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 2003 was an impromptu decision on the field itself. Tendulkar’s unbeaten 241 off 436 balls enabled India to draw the Test match as the 2003-04 Border-Gavaskar series finished on a 1-1 scoreline.
Tendulkar had smashed 33 boundaries during the course of his innings which lasted for 613 minutes but he managed not hit a single cover drive as he was repeatedly getting out while trying to play shots outside the off-stump during the series.
Describing the same during a chat with India Today, Sachin said, “After my conversation with my brother, I realized there was no weakness (in his batting) as such. If there was any weakness, then it was about shot selection. I realized I needed the discipline to be in the driving seat. My natural instincts, they have to be sitting in the passenger seat. My discipline, come what may, even if I was batting on 70 or 120, I was always going to have discipline in my driver’s seat.”
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He further explained, “The challenge which my brother threw at me before the Test match was ‘try and stay not out.’ He told me ‘I don’t think any bowler can get you out. It’s because of your shot selection’. I took up that challenge and decided I wouldn’t get out in the Test match. About not playing cover drive, it happened then and there on the field. I had not decided this earlier.”
The Master of Oz: Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt ). Watch #Exclusive with @BoriaMajumdar #ITLiveStream https://t.co/JA5uAPxpOY
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Sachin Tendulkar went through an extremely lean patch, scoring just 88 runs from the first 3 Test matches of the series. In his 5 innings, he had registered 3 single-digit scores including 2 ducks. But his century in Sydney knock changed it all for him as the world stood up and took notice of Tendulkar’s genius once again.
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Elaborating the same, Tendulkar added, “That’s how it happened, it wasn’t planned. It is all about what you are for the team. It’s not always about natural instincts taking over. It’s not about you, it’s about what you are for the team. Earlier in the three Tests, I looked at the scoreboard and told myself ‘this is not me. This is not who I am for the team, the team expects bigger scores’.”
