South African batting legend Graeme Pollock has a piece of advice for Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar that he should decide on how long he wished to continue his international cricket career because things have not been going his way from quite a long time.
“Sachin should take a call on his retirement as he had been some serious pressure not because of his critics but because of his recent failures against Australia and England. The way he played Nathan Lyon was bit awkward,” Pollock told Mid-Day.
Graeme Pollock’s ability to pile up huge amount of runs in his early 40s was well acknowledged. Pollock went on to make 144 in his last International appearance in 1987. He shared his rough experience of that time and said, “It was getting really tough to rise up to the occasion and come up with those big hundreds but finally I took a call on my retirement at 43 and bid adieu to the game.”
Pollock stressed, “He is a batting legend who can get runs at his will but not in the same manner as he used to get five years back. Carrying that pressure of expectations of millions of fans makes it even more challenging.”
According to the Mid-Day, Tendulkar came up with his best performance at Chennai where he scored 81 runs and got the team out of trouble but that form was left over there and he could not even score a half-century in the whole series. Earlier, Monty Panesar and later Nathan Lyon got him leg before wicket quite frequently. Not scoring a single century in the 10 Tests at home, it is something which Tendulkar has never gone through.
Meanwhile, Indian pacer Umesh Yadav is roaring back for his place in Indian squad and is all set to make his comeback from glittering sixth edition of Indian Premier League. He has been working on his fitness so that he can be available for Delhi Daredevils this season.
According to the recent reports in Times of India, Yadav was quoted saying, "I will make my much-awaited comeback from the opening match of Delhi Daredevils but my main concern is the travelling which is way too much during the IPL. I have been bowling long spells in the net-session and I have been working on my fitness level which went down after my lower-back injury."
Young-pace battery has been working hard to get his rhythm back, as in his early days of recovery he used to ball with 4 steps of run-up which he gradually increased eight and then 12. But now he has gained is natural run-up of 16 steps and is working day in and day out on this aspect.
Vidarbha-Express, Umesh, was quoted by The Hindu saying, “The good thing about this four months of recovery is that I haven’t let my natural pace go down which is very important for any bowler. Normally, when player gets some injury then his pace goes down but I have been taking care of that as that’s is my strength.”
Meanwhile, Indian Express quoted Umesh saying, "Playing in practice match is different ball game than bowling in nets. It has been a grinding phase of four months for me and I will get to know tomorrow that how much improvement I had done till now. I am planning to play all the group league games which will give me a fair amount of idea how my body is responding."