India played an intra-squad game and, as is the norm in Perth, most of the batters got out nicking behind the wicket. With a week still left for the first Test, things will surely get better for the Indian batting unit. That’s what brings me to Sachin Tendulkar in February 1992 – all of 19 years old and on a wicket which was faster than ever at the hallowed fortress of the WACA.
India crumbled round him, but Tendulkar stood strong. Against a top-class Australian bowling attack, he scored one of his best-ever hundreds, and in doing so, established himself as a generational talent in world cricket.
As India get ready for the first Test, it is pertinent to recount what Sachin said about this hundred and what he did differently in Perth. It is a batting lesson that many could learn from.
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“I scored my second hundred of the series in the fifth Test, which started on 1 February, and I count it as one of the very best I have scored,” he said in Playing it My Way. “It was a quick wicket and for the first time since my debut I was going in at number four in a Test. I relished the opportunity from the outset and hit sixteen boundaries in my 114. By that stage of the tour I had mastered a back-foot punch. While most batsmen favoured the cut shot at Perth because of the extra bounce, I used the back-foot punch at every opportunity and because I was able to do so against good-length balls, it was making the bowlers’ job that much more difficult.
“It would usually bring me at least a couple of runs and when I timed the ball really well it would even go all the way to the boundary. Earlier, the Australian media had talked up the fast, bouncy WACA wicket and how difficult it would make it for us to cope with the Australian quick bowlers. But I never had a problem batting at the WACA. This was because I managed to adjust to the bounce. Every time the ball got big on me, I stayed on the back foot and played the ball with soft hands at the last moment, standing up on my toes rather than playing a flat-footed defensive stroke.”
Is there a lesson in this for Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill or even Virat Kohli? Just as Ajinkya Rahane benefitted from watching Tendulkar’s 116 at the MCG (1999-2000) ahead of the Boxing Day Test in 2021, the Indian batting unit might just want to see his 114 ahead of the Test at the Optus Stadium.
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