Tendulkar has a long stint at the nets

The news from the Indian team hotel was anything but inspiring. The words ‘optional practice' were bandied around and as the scribes resigned themselves to a sluggish day here on Wednesday, a stir was in store with Sachin Tendulkar deciding to have a hit in the nets.

The man, who is feeling the weight of expectations ever since that hundred against South Africa at Nagpur during last March and has also struggled to impose his regal stature at the crease over the last few months, strode in with Yusuf Pathan and Rahul Sharma.

The team's coaching trio of Duncan Fletcher, Joe Dawes (bowling) and Trevor Penney (fielding) were also in attendance and soon Tendulkar buckled down for a long stint that lasted more than an hour.

The bowling group of Yusuf, Rahul, Dawes, Penney and video-analyst Dhananjay evoked varying responses from Tendulkar. The maestro fine-tuned his trickle towards third-man with mixed results against Yusuf and when he tried to defend, a delivery struck his bat and then bounced past the stumps triggering mirth in the off-spinner.

Rahul enjoyed no such luck as Tendulkar relished the extra bounce to sandpaper his cuts and lofted a few that threatened the parked vehicles in the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. In the adjacent net, Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara essayed some aggressive shots and departed but Tendulkar kept batting though he took mini-breaks to chat with Fletcher.

Later, he watched Yusuf's hefty strikes and then enthusiastically bowled his leg-breaks to a perplexed Rahul. The tail-ender failed to read Tendulkar, miscued a few shots and the senior partner gleefully indicated that those strokes would be caught in the deep.

Rahul then swung his bat and missed and once was also castled while Tendulkar mixed it up, bowling the faster one and at times pausing a bit and imparting air. Finally Rahul managed to thump a few from the meat of his bat. At the end of the session, Tendulkar took him aside and discussed his stance.

Cricket's highest run-getter laughed, spoke a lot and displayed an ease that belied the anxieties of waiting for his elusive 100th international hundred for over a year.