Tendulkar-less India gear up for Pak series

MUMBAI: Sachin Tendulkar’s absence stands out glaringly as India’s rusty cricketers flex their limbs from Monday (today) to prepare for next month’s highly anticipated series against Pakistan.

Tendulkar, the most prolific batsman in contemporary cricket with 34 Test and 37 one-day centuries, has still not fully recovered from a tennis elbow injury sustained in August last year. The 31-year-old, who last played in Bangladesh in December, was advised by doctors not to pick up a bat for six weeks, a period that ends in mid-February.

Tendulkar will miss the Challenger one-day series, featuring the country’s top 36 players, which starts here on Monday, and a major part of the subsequent inter-zonal Duleep Trophy first-class tournament. But sources close to the player indicate that Tendulkar will be fit to play in the Test series against Pakistan starting on March 4. "He has taken doctors’ advice very seriously," a Mumbai teammate said, adding, "I don’t think he wants to play in pain again as he did for most of the season."

Tendulkar was rushed back from injury for two of the four Tests against Australia in October and also played against South Africa and Bangladesh - scoring a double-century against the minnows.

As Tendulkar rests, the other Indian probables will spend the next three weeks gearing up for the Pakistan series. Most of the top stars have not played competitive cricket since the Bangladesh tour. The probables have been divided into three teams for the Challenger series with Test captain Sourav Ganguly leading India seniors, vice-captain Rahul Dravid in charge of India A and Virender Sehwag captaining India B.

All matches will be played under lights at the Wankhede Stadium with each team playing the other once in the league. The top two sides will clash in the final on Thursday. The players will then disband to represent their respective zones in the Duleep Trophy.

"These are three important weeks to prepare for Pakistan," said Ganguly on Sunday. "We should be fighting fit by the time they (Pakistanis) reach here."

Pakistan, expected to arrive on February 25, will play three Tests and five One-day Internationals on their first tour of India in six years.

With a settled batting line-up and two world-class spinners in Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh in hand, the selectors’ main worry is finding a suitable wicket-keeper who can also bat.

Parthiv Patel and Dinesh Karthik played in the Test series earlier this season, while Mahender Dhoni was picked for the one-dayers against Bangladesh.

The three will keep wicket for their respective sides in the Challenger series and the Duleep Trophy.

"We are looking for an all-rounder to balance the team and it will help to have a keeper who can also contribute with the bat," said chairman of selectors and former Test wicketkeeper Kiran More.

Frequent injuries to pace bowlers have also not helped India’s cause, but Irfan Pathan, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Laxmipathy Balaji and Ashish Nehra are fit to play the trial matches.

Off-spinner Harbhajan will miss the Challenger tournament to visit Australia for corrective action on his bowling arm after he was reported by English match referee Chris Broad during the Bangladesh tour.

Sachin will be there. And he will break the world record. he will prove all his critics wrong....AGAIN.

Sachin will be there. And he will break the world record. Simply because he only plays for records & to boost his own average

that is such tripe i wont even attempt to answer that. his achievements speak for themselves.

gary - it's a little suspect how he plays through th epain barrier against bdesh instead of allowing a younger player to have a go

Sachin's achievements?

I challenge you to name 5 achievements that don't involve averages!

how is it? the guy wanted to play test cricket for his country.

come on lefty....248 against Bangladesh! That too with excrutiating pain from tennis elbow! Speaks for itself doesn't it!

as i say i dont need to answer for SRT.

yes jinnie! How could I forget that!

i recon sachin will be best bonus point collector this yr!

aw damn AJ - How could I forget that monumental achievement??! Now there is something sachin has achieved which no-one else has!

Come on guys, it's not fair to knock Sachin. Give him his dues. Remember truly great players give their best when the heat is on & the stage has been set for them to come out & perform.

Now cast your minds to that momentous innings Sachin played in the World Cup 2003 final.

just like ian botham!

Beefy Sachin.......now that does have a ring to it......hang on isn't that blasphemy for the Little Master of Averages?

sachin is a great player. dont think he has to prove anything. btw gary, what record does he have to break now?

He will be back - lets not underestimate him in anyway. We can produce stats for and against him til the Bhainsas come home but he remains a quality player.

well even if sachiin does return, he is in such poor form that it will benefit pakistan.

looking forward to seing sehwag and sachin getting bowled out nice and early by shabir or rana.

lol !

Sachin is great great player . Its an other how you feel about him !

The show he gave at the asia cup was just poor !

Doesn't matter how quality the guy is. Anyone who plays for records & averages & generally for themselves is not a great player in my book.

Viv Richards could've broken most records if he wanted to but he chose to put the interests of his team first

Imran Khan could've trundled his way to 400 wickets or more but it wasn't in Pakistan's interests. Same could be said for Malcolm Marshall.

Compare that Kapil Dev who got Kumble to bowl consistently wide from the other end just so he could beat Hadlee's record. What's the point? His average & strike rate still prove mediocrisy.

Sachin is a great talent no doubt but the amount of big matches in which he failed to perform in prove that he just isn't that great!

Compare that Kapil Dev who got Kumble to bowl consistently wide from the other end just so he could beat Hadlee's record. What's the point? His average & strike rate still prove mediocrisy.

is that true ?

very much so. As Khansaab said look at his strike rate. Of all the pace bowlers who got 350 plus wickets his is easily the worst, 63.9!

he played to long....

yeah he did go on to break the record but the fact is at his peak he was one of the best all rounders we have ever seen. remember india were hardly blessed with pacers. Tendulkar plays for the team, to suggest he doesnt is ridiculous. You obviously have never seen the guy if you make comments like that. What other batsman can make 241* playing at 50% of his capacity, in the middle of his worst ever run, in a crucial test and against the best team in the world overseas? NONE. not even Lara.

Did they win that test match after scoring 705?

Could they have won that test match if he & his team had raised the scoring rate just a little?

Yes it was against the best team in the world but the bowling was not full strength by any means

You've proven nothing apart from my point.

"What other batsman can make 241* playing at 50% of his capacity in the middle of his worst ever run, in a crucial test and against the best team in the world overseas? NONE. not even Lara.
"

This is the "great" tendu we're talkin about here......surely the little ***** can score at 50% capacity!

He batted for days - surely he could have tried to push the rate a bit after reaching, 100, or 150, hell even after 200 he could have pushed the rate. But no, tuk, tuk, tuk....where was he playing for his team.

What's the point in making 705 when you dont leave yourself enough time to bowl out the opposition! It seems it's not only me that thinks this way, even Dravid - poor guy had to declare against poak while tendu was doing his tuk, tuk , tuk...

And yea Lara couldn't pull off what tendu did. Lara doesn't deal in double centuries....When in bad form, he goes out and produces a quadruple!!

As for Kapil, his strike rate resembles a spinners....actually so did his pace!!

Yes yes Lefty, well said! His face resembled a spinner too....spin doctor that is.....when he put on those crocodile tears when accused of match fixing!
What a sight! I felt ashamed just being from the same continent as him when I saw that!

Amit Mishra

If Tendulkar was such a great then he would have tried to win the Asia Cup match rather than getting the bonus point. He played a negative innings.

Can anyone imagine Lara, Viv Richards etc playing that sort of innings against their arch rival team. It was like India were saying we give up.

Tendu was following team orders!
Not Tendulkar's fault Ganguly went so so defensive in his captaincy!!! and India couldnt take 20 wkts!
Lara scored 400* but he gets nothing like the stick Sachin does!

what about when he sat on 194 vs Pakistan trying to nurdle his way to 200 when what his team needed more than anything was to start bowling at Pakistan? If he'd taken a risk & played a few shots he would've got there in no time, Pakistan were bowling like a village side that match.

I'll quote Gavaskar after that innings: "if he was good enough he would've reached 200 a long time ago & as far as I'm concerned, he's not good enough"

Now I won't argue with the original llittle master!

I'll quote him then!

"Tendulkar is the closest to batting perfection that I have seen"