Sachin Tendulkar backs KL Rahul to come good in South Africa

The master blaster Sachin Tendulkar believes the current Indian team travelling South Africa is the most balanced Test team ever on paper. Virat Kohli led Indian side has been invincible during the grand home season and are looking to continue in the same vein in first of their many overseas tours this year. They are in good space and despite an injury to Shikhar Dhawan, have no panicked. However, Sachin Tendulkar is pretty confident that the backup opener KL Rahul to come good against the fiery pace attack of South Africa.

Hardik Pandya has been the biggest asset for the Men in Blue across the formats for quite some time now. He has been groomed over the last two years and is believed to be playing a huge role on overseas tours lined up in 2018. Sachin also believed that the upcoming Test series would be the biggest of Pandya’s career and would help him to improve as a cricketer. Even the Indian skipper has been banking on him despite having the experience of only three games in whites.

Master believes South Africa is depleted

Sachin Tendulkar expressed confidence in KL Rahul while speaking to Hindustan Times and said that he has the ability to tackle the fast bowlers of the Proteas. “All I can say is KL Rahul is a capable opener. I haven’t seen much of him, but Rahul is well equipped to handle the South African bowlers. All batsmen go through good and bad patches. So, current form can at best be a pointer but all depends on the pitch that is on offer. Even bowlers can have off days. Overall, India have enough firepower and they should come out trumps,” he said.

The master also felt that this is the best chance to beat South Africa as they lack experience in red-ball cricket. Even their main players are coming out of an injury which means they will be rusty in their approach. “South Africa will miss a lot of experience. There are a lot of new faces who are largely untested. Old guns like Dale Steyn, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis are coming off injuries or were indisposed. So there is a definite experience vacuum in the South Africa team and India must exploit that,” Sachin continued.

He also echoed the comments of Virat Kohli by saying that the current team possess perfect balance and can beat the toughest oppositions in their own den. “In my 24 years with the Indian Test team we never had the balance this team has. The man who brings in such versatility is Hardik Pandya. A guy who can bowl 17-18 overs and is perfectly capable of scoring runs at No 7 or 8 is an asset. This is going to be Pandya’s biggest series and Virat will be banking on him,” the 44-year-old concluded.

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