Sachin Tendulkar
Windies legend Brian Lara was West Indies cricket team to take a leaf out of batting great Sachin Tendulkar's unbeaten 241 in Sydney in coping with the England pace attack in the upcoming three-match Test series.
The Test series, which will begin from Wednesday onwards at the Ages Bowl in Southampton, will mark the return of the sports after a long break of four months due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Discussing West Indies' chances in the Test series, especially against a dominating England attack spearheaded by James Anderson, Lara advised the team to no attempt in attacking every bowler.
“In England, it [the approach] is to protect your stumps and get acclimatised quickly, get the pace and bounce of the pitch,” he said while in conversation with Tendulkar on the show 100MB. “Know what the bowlers are doing and then when you feel comfortable, then you can sort of grow and get into your innings. [But] you don’t necessarily have to dominate every single bowler that’s bowling to you. When you get to 70 or 80 and there’s a bowler that is giving you trouble, back off.”
Lara then talked about Sachin's epic Sydney knock in 2004. During the tour, Sachin was struggling with the deliveries outside the off and hence managed scores of 0, 1, 37, 0 and 44 before nocthing up that double century en route to which he avoided playing his cover drive.
“That’s the key [not dominating every bowler],” Lara continued. “You know that as well, Sachin. In terms of that great innings that you played in Sydney. It wasn’t about a particular bowler getting you out but it was a particular shot getting you out. And you stopped yourself from playing it and so you were able to score in other areas. So it’s a similar sort of approach, be it your technique and maybe having a problem with a particular shot or a particular bowler.
“In the many, many times that I’ve played … a good example would be Australia. [When] playing against Australia, and I would be on 70, 80 or maybe even 140 and [Glenn] McGrath comes back for a spell, and I know he is going to bowl six overs or seven overs, then I don’t need to take any great risk when there are other guys at the other end, giving me the opportunity to score.”
