With the series against England level at 1-1, and following the poor performance in Mumbai, India need Sachin Tendulkar now more than ever, former captain Rahul Dravid has said, and he has been backed him to perform in the rest of the series.
Tendulkar has not scored a half-century
in his last ten Test innings and has managed just 29 runs in the three
innings he's played against England so far in which he's been dismissed
each time to spin. Dravid, however, said Tendulkar looked better than he
did in the previous home series against New Zealand, and "who better
than Sachin" to deliver in the next two games.
"I thought he was a little scratchy and looked a little under-prepared
against New Zealand," Dravid said of Tendulkar, who prepared for the
England series with a century for Mumbai in their opening game of the
Ranji Trophy against Railways at the Wankhede Stadium. "Here, I know it
seems strange to say after he's had three failures, but he's actually
looking quite good.
"He's played a couple of straight drives, he's played a couple of shots
that when I was playing with him, you knew he was playing well if he was
playing those shots."
Tendulkar, Dravid said, had also been a little unlucky in this series.
"He'll be disappointed with the shot he played to get out in Ahmedabad
on a relatively flatter wicket, and then to see other people score runs.
Here, he was a bit unlucky: the first ball that really spun on the
first morning was the one that got him. Until then there weren't too
many balls spinning. And then he played for the spin in the second
innings and the ball straightened on a track on which every ball was
spinning.
"India need him now more than ever. At 1-1 in a tight series, it's going
to be very important for senior players to stand up and who better than
Sachin to do that."
India went in with three specialist spinners for the Mumbai Test, on a
surface that turned from the outset, but Dravid said, given that the
conditions in Kolkata would be different, India would be better off with
a combination of two spinners and two seamers.
"It's a different kind of soil, it does not break up," he said. "It's
black soil, red soil [like in Mumbai] tends to deteriorate very quickly
and if you leave it dry, it can turn and bounce a lot more than the
black soil does.
"I think that's a blessing in disguise from India's point of view. They
might have to work harder for the wins but it'll also give their batsmen
a chance to be able to put up big scores, and to be able to show they
are good players of spin."
Dravid admitted Dhoni had problems using his spin resources in Mumbai,
especially with the availability of two other part-time options. "He's
going to have to re-look at his combination, simply because it's going
to be difficult to manage three spinners and especially having Yuvraj
Singh and Virender Sehwag in the side who can also bowl spin.
"The combination they had in Ahmedabad was the best one, where they had
two seamers and two spinners. Hopefully we'll see a normal Kolkata
wicket. India have a great record in Kolkata, we've had a lot of success
in Kolkata, because it is a typical subcontinental wicket. As it starts
off, you can play your shots, there is something in it for the fast
bowlers but it does spin."
Umesh Yadav will miss the Kolkata Test due to injury, and Ashok Dinda
has been included in the squad having been named as cover last week.
Should Dinda be picked in the XI, Harbhajan Singh, who bowled the least
number of overs among India's spinners in Mumbai, may be left out.
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