Tendulkar plays mentor’s role to perfection

Day One of the pre-Sri Lanka series camp was mostly muted but for one strong statement.

With skipper Rahul Dravid and his deputy Virender Sehwag deciding to give the three-day camp a skip and join the team directly at Nagpur for the first one day international and few old timers among the survivors, Sachin Tendulkar almost inadvertently shepherd the relatively young flock.

And if a senior team member is to be believed the scenario, will remain the same even when the top two join the team.

‘‘Though Sachin’s opinion has always mattered, now with quite a few new boys in the team he is someone who everyone looks up to,’’ he said, obviously not wishing to give his name to the statement.

And it was all too evident in the one hour that the players were outdoors as rains disrupted the first day training. The one frame that drove home the point was that of the brightest future prospect of the Indian cricket, Suresh Raina, in serious consultation with Tendulkar, who had seen the youngster bat closely as he bowled to him for about 15 minutes.

While the others rested in the shade because of the slight drizzle, Raina had wisdom pouring on him as Chappell too joined in.

After Raina got the batting lesson of his life from two great batsmen, Chappell and Tendulkar went into a huddle. Soon the pitch curator was called in at the mid-field high-level meeting as Tendulkar explained to him the surface the team wished to have during the camp.

After his brief batting, Tendulkar had another consulting session. First came Gautam Gambhir for some batting tips as Tendulkar was getting rid of the batting gear while during the tea break Irfan Pathan dropped in at the Master class and was seen sorting out some problem with the seam.

After spending time with the newcomers during the nets, Tendulkar was with the old boys again. And as the session ended Tendulkar walked up to a special car waiting for him and the India regulars followed.

Agarkar, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh too hopped in as Tendulkar led the cricketing entourage out of the Chinnaswamy stadium.

The Indian coach was assisted by his support staff — trainer Gregory King and physio John Gloster — besides bio-mechanics expert Ian Frazer.

Meanwhile, leg-spinner Anil Kumble and Mohammed Kaif, who are under rehabilitation, spent some time with Gloster, who is supervising their progress.