Legendary Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar said that India’s current bowling attack is capable enough to win matches in overseas conditions. Winning matches away from home, particularly in England and Australia has always been considered as a daunting task for India.
During the book launch of Democracy’s XI by Rajdeep Sardesai, as per the quotes in Indian Express, Tendulkar said, “Today, we have got a great balance in our team because all spinners can bat, seamers can bat. You saw yesterday (1st ODI against New Zealand), Bhuvneshwar played and Hardik Pandya, these guys are going to change the balance when we start travelling.”
Tendulkar also confessed that when India beat West Indies in 2002 was when the famous batting line-up that comprised of him, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman truly fell into place. “By that time Rahul (Dravid) was there, Sourav (Ganguly) had played for good 5-6 years and Laxman was there, our batting was sort of settled but all in all, for winning abroad you need good bowling attack and we were able to pick 20 wickets. On a number of occasions, the problem was to pick 20 wickets and not give too many runs but that slowly started changing.”
Even in the West Indies tour of which Sachin was talking about, India may have won the ODI series but lost the preceding Test series. It remains one of West Indies’ most outstanding series wins in the 21st century. Tendulkar said, “I feel we were missing a guy who could come in and give some rest to our regular bowlers because when we were travelling, Anil (Kumble) would end up bowling 25-30 overs and that’s too much load.”
Talking about changes in Virat Kohli’s attitude, Sachin concluded, “His (Kohli’s) attitude hasn’t changed since he got into the team. I noticed that spark in him which many guys were not fond of and there were many guys who were criticising him for that. And today that has become the strength of the Indian team. He hasn’t changed much but people around him have changed. His attitude has changed only because of his performances and it is extremely crucial for a player to have that freedom to express himself.”
