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In five tours spread across nearly two decades, Sachin Tendulkar scored five Test hundreds in South Africa, more than any other visiting batsman. To put that into perspective, Virat Kohli is the only other Indian with more than one century in South Africa – he has two. So, as India embark on another Test series in the highveld – in the only country where they have yet to win a Test series – Tendulkar’s thoughts on the unique challenges that the batsmen will face are priceless.
In an earlier interaction in the Backstage with Boria series, he had addressed the subject with great clarity. Make no mistake, South Africa is a brutal test for the batting unit. Nowhere else have Indian batters averaged less than the 25.59 they do on South African soil. Only 10 times in 45 innings have they gone past 300. In the last two series, their highest totals have been 327 and 307, and they conceded the series in 2022 after consecutive scores of 202, 266, 223 and 198 in Johannesburg and Cape Town.
What then is the key to surmounting the odds on South African pitches? “There are a number of occasions that we’ve spoken, and I’ve always said that front-foot defence is important,” said Tendulkar on the show. “And that front-foot defence is going to count here. The first 25 overs, it’s going to be critical and that’s what you got to see in England [in 2021] when [KL] Rahul got those runs and so did Rohit [Sharma]. Their front-foot defence was solid.
“The hands were not going away from the ball. When your hands start going away from the body, that’s when you start losing control, slowly but surely. The beauty was their hands were not going away. They got beaten on occasions, and that’s fine. Every batter gets beaten, and bowlers are there to pick wickets, so it’s okay. That was the major difference between the earlier partnerships that were unsuccessful and the last tour of England where the openers did a fabulous job.”
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This was a conversation recorded earlier.
But with India back in South Africa for what is being labelled our final frontier, every word of this masterclass is relevant and pertinent. Sachin Tendulkar on playing in South African conditions is the best advice for… pic.twitter.com/gYKMhTlvg7
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With Rahul now part of the middle order courtesy the wicketkeeping double role, the onus will be on Yashasvi Jaiswal to strike up a similar understanding with Rohit. And according to Tendulkar, the difference between success and failure could well lie in the mindset the players take out into the middle. “When you start telling yourself that this is something I’m not going to do, the first thing you do in the middle is your hands going away,” he said. “Try and give yourself a message of what you are expected to do and what you want to do, rather than what you shouldn’t be doing. Most of the guys in the team will be working on what they want to do, and not what one should not be doing.
“It’s all about positive reinforcement, and that positive energy flowing in your body reflects in your movements. You’re more fluid, you’re not tight. That nervous energy can be picked [up on] by the opposition. If you’re confident and positive, that will also be picked by the opposition. The bowler smells it. It’s like a man-eater knowing when there’s prey around. It’s going to pounce. That’s exactly what a bowler does with a batter.”
Tendulkar, whose final Test ton in Cape Town (146) featured an epic tussle with Dale Steyn that showcased Test cricket at its finest, was also certain that the batters needed to be flexible with regard to the match situation. “The approach will change depending on how well the batter is batting,” he said. “After 25 overs, I’m not saying life is going to get easy. It will still be tough, but relatively easier.”
The challenge for India is going to be to get to that point without undue damage.
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