Sachin’s Rajya Sabha nomination is unlikely to affect his cricket career

The news of Sachin Tendulkar's Rajya Sabha nomination is a development which appears to have taken even his close circle of friends by surprise. They had no inkling until Thursday morning when Tendulkar met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, says a report in Hindustan Times.

“The master batsman reportedly left Mohali on Wednesday night after the match against Kings XI to be in the Capital in the morning.  It is known that Tendulkar and Rahul Gandhi are good friends and have met on quite a few occasions, mostly without public knowledge. Tendulkar is also known to enjoy a good rapport with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, but he always been reluctant to be associated with any political party. He had declined to campaign for childhood friend and former teammate Vinod Kambli when he contested the Maharashtra state elections,” adds the report, saying that his Rajya Sabha nomination is unlikely to have any bearing on his cricket career. He's convinced he can compete with the best at the

Meanwhile, Harbhajan Singh in his column in The Times of India writes that Ambati Rayudu should play for India soon. Harbhajan Singh writes that a match is never over till the last ball is bowled and that turned out to be the case for Mumbai Indians in the last game against Team Punjab in Mohali. “This was our first ever win at the PCA stadium. This is a much-needed win and it will most certainly help us to get back in the league. I am really happy with the way things turned out for us. 32 runs off 12 balls is often considered to be steep ask. But our boys Ambati Rayudu and Robin Peterson had different plans. They showed a lot of character and grit to get us past this total,” writes Bhajji.

“168 runs was a tough chase, but full marks to the batting unit for making this possible. James Franklin and Sachin Tendulkar gave a solid platform to the middle-order. After that, Rohit Sharma took over and once again, exhibited his calibre and class. Under pressure, he played another gem of an innings. Rayudu picked up from where Rohit left. Rayudu started sensibly by picking singles before launching his counter attack. He picked the right balls to hit and never lost his cool in the demanding situation. These are the hall marks of a mature player. I would like to reiterate what I’ve said before, Rayudu is one of the most exciting talents in India and should play for the country soon,” writes Harbhajan.

Sunil Gavaskar in his coulumn in TOI writes that with wins in their previous matches, both Team Delhi and Team Mumbai will be high on confidence as they lock horns once again, this time at the Ferozeshah Kotla.

“What Mumbai will be pleased about is the manner in which the promising Ambati Rayudu took them to a win. He has batted aggressively, but mainly while setting targets. Here, he helped chase down a very stiff total and that speaks a great deal about the maturity that is coming into his game. To stay right till the end is crucial, especially if you are hitting the ball well and that is what Rayudu did at Mohali. This is not to forget the magnificent effort of Robin Peterson, who switch-hit and then swung Piyush Chawla for the first three balls and then left the final demolition to Rayudu. Chawla looked as if he was about to cry as ball after ball disappeared,” adds Gavaskar.

According to a report in Hindustan Times, Mumbai Indians’ bowling coach Shaun Pollock said on Thursday that there was nothing to worry about captain Harbhajan Singh’s extended lean patch with the ball. The MI skipper has so far got only one wicket from seven IPL games.
“Harbhajan sets very high standards for himself and his performance hasn’t been that bad. Obviously, he hasn’t got a lot wickets but that is not something we are worried about,” said Pollock.