The legendary Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar has shared his secret of success in South Africa before the start of a 3-match test series between India and South Africa on Boxing Day. Tendulkar scored 5 hundreds in South Africa in 15 test matches he played there and averaged 46.44 with the bat, which is a remarkable average for an Asian batsman in those conditions.
According to Sachin Tendulkar, what’s key in South Africa is the front foot defense of the batsman. When a batsman is solid onto the front foot and isn’t really throwing his hands at the ball for the first 25 overs with the new ball, he gives himself a chance to play a long innings. The problem starts when the batsman starts chasing the balls away from his body. It’s impossible to have any sort of control when the ball is seaming around and the batsman is playing away from the body.
Tendulkar was in a conversation with Boria Majumdar on his show Backstage with Boria where he was asked what the Indian batsmen, particularly the openers, should do differently to what they did on their previous South Africa tour in 2018. Tendulkar was also asked what was the reason the opening partnership of Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul was so successful in England, to which Tendulkar replied that both Rohit and Rahul played close to their body.
You might get beaten, but keep playing close to your body: Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar stressed the point when a batsman is looking to play the line of the ball close to his body, it’s very possible that he will be beaten a few times because of the movement of the ball, but as long as he is not trying anything extravagant and is sticking to his method, he will reap the rewards of it, as Rohit and Rahul reaped in England.
3 days to the South Africa Test series and all eyes will be on Indian batting. Here is the best analyst I know @sachin_rt on a real masterclass on batting in SAF. Full show 23 Dec 2pm #BackstagewithBoria @AgeasFederal pic.twitter.com/Yg1zIn2eZs
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) December 21, 2021
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Both Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul scored a hundred each in England and their solidity at the top of the order was one of the main reasons why India were leading in the series by 2-1, before the final test match was pushed ahead because of COVID outbreak.
Rohit and Rahul rarely gave England bowlers the opening that they needed with the new ball to get into the middle order early and run through the entire batting order of India. James Anderson and the other England seamers went wicketless in quite a few of their new-ball spells.
