India vs Australia: Half-hearted foot movement would always land batsmen in trouble, says Sachin Tendulkar ahead of Boxing Day Test

India and Australia will next play at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from December 26.

File Photo (Twitter@ICC)

Melbourne: The Boxing Day Test against the Australians is around the corner and India's batting legend Sachin Tendulkar has an advice for the Indian batsmen, which they probably lacked against the Aussies in the first Test when they were bundled out for their lowest ever score of 36. 

"I thought in the first innings we batted well and showed a lot of resilience. In the second innings, there was not much playing and missing by our batsmen. The ball wasn't moving around too much, just a little bit. Normally, when batters score runs we don't look at other elements, like the number of times he was beaten etc," batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar told IANS after the Adelaide Test loss.

He added, "But we talk about a number of aspects when the batter has edged the ball. Off similar deliveries, when you are beaten and when you are scoring runs, nobody talks about those. One change that one can talk about was getting a nice, big stride forward, which I felt was missing. In foreign conditions, I feel with a good stride forward against fast bowlers becomes important."

The master blaster said that the half-hearted foot movement would always land batsmen in trouble.

"A half-and-half defence (short stride) can always trouble you and if there`s a little more movement off the seam then your hands tend to compensate for the lack of footwork. What I also simultaneously noticed was that the Australians bowled very much on off stump -- much, much tighter -- and not outside the off stump whereas they bowled outside the off stump in the first innings," he pointed out.

Tendulkar also talked about India's intent on the day when India set the unwanted record and said, "We lost Prithvi Shaw early (in second innings) and then I still remember Jasprit Bumrah played that evening -- and how the team responded to that. Overall, the feeling was good in the dressing room. The next morning that only element that I felt could have been better was a little more precision in footwork, more so while playing on the front foot -- getting a nice, full stride forward, which I spoke about earlier here."

With the way India batted & bowled in the 1st innings, they were in the driver's seat, but the Aussies came back really hard this morning.
That is the beauty of Test cricket.
It’s NEVER over till it’s over. India was outclassed in the 2nd half. Congratulations to Australia! — Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) December 19, 2020

"If you get a nice stride forward while defending then your hands stay close to your body. When your stride is not nicely stretched forward then your hands tend to go away from the body, towards the ball. I would say that getting a good stride forward can help a lot of players," added Tendulkar. 

Notably, winning the toss and opting to bat first, India had an edge over the Aussies after having made just 244 in the first innings and bowling out the Australians for 191 to take a lead of 53 runs. 

However, in the second innings, the Indians were restricted to their lowest ever score, 36, with no batsmen even entering a double-digit score. Josh Hazlewood (5-3-8-5) and Patrick Cummins (10.2-4-21-4) displayed fast bowling of highest quality and made sure the Kangaroos take the revenge of their last series against India.

That's that from the 1st Test.

Australia win by 8 wickets and go 1-0 up in the four-match series.

Scorecard - https://t.co/dBLRRBSJrx #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/B00dlrLoeu — BCCI (@BCCI) December 19, 2020

India and Australia will next play in Melbourne from December 26. India will be without their skipper Virat Kohli for the remaining three Tests as he has headed back home after being granted paternity leave by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), whereas, David Warner and Sean Abbott have been ruled out of the second Test, Cricket Australia (CA) said on Wednesday.