'He had that 'keeda''- Ravi Shastri explains how Sachin Tendulkar excelled at bowling

Sachin Tendulkar has several batting records to his name, including 100 international centuries and the record for being the highest run-getter in world cricket in both Tests and One Day Internationals. While he was a force to reckon with on the 22 yards, Tendulkar also had the reputation of bamboozling the best batters in the business with his spin bowling, with former Pakistan skipper Inzamam-ul-Haq being one of his regular scalps.

Speaking on Tendulkar’s interest in bowling, former India head coach Ravi Shastri has said that the Master Blaster had a ‘keeda‘ to excel at that art and that he would try different deliveries like off-spin and leg-spin after he finished batting. Tendulkar took 46 and 154 wickets in the 200 Tests and 463 One Day Internationals respectively.

“There were Sehwag, Sachin, Yuvraj, Raina. But in the past 3-4 years, you had nobody. So, the whole balance of the side was compromised. So, it was good to see someone like Axar and Hooda in your side. They can bowl, they can bat,” Shastri said during his commentary stint with FanCode.

As of now, India have part-time bowling options in white-ball cricket in the form of Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, etc., but as far as a consistent genuine all-rounder is concerned, the only option available for now is Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur and Axar Patel to a certain extent. Star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja might not have had a good outing with the ball in hand in the last couple of months but has played some vital knocks in the middle-order.

“At the end of the day, surely there are batsmen around the country who enjoy bowling, who have that ‘keeda‘ to bowl. Like Tendulkar had that ‘keeda‘. If he finished the batting, he was like, ‘I don’t care’. He would take the ball and try different deliveries like off-spin, leg-spin. So that is keeda. So there are plenty.

“Ajay (Jadeja) would love to bowl after he finished his batting. So you have to identify. You have 1.4 billion people man, and you are trying to tell me, keeda nahi hai kisi batsman ke paas, bowling karne ka? Kamaal hai (No batsman is interested in bowling? It’s impossible),” he added.