Despite scoring dominating century, Tendulkar rates this series as his toughest!

At the launch of a health drink here on Tuesday, Sachin Tendulkar was indicating to the event organisers that he had to leave for the match. The time was 5.12 pm and he had to rush to the Mumbai Indians hotel and join the team ahead of their IPL Qualifier 1 against Rising Pune Supergiant.

After all, Tendulkar is the team mentor and formed an integral part of the Mumbai Indians think-tank. Yet, Tendulkar had time for a ‘Jaldi Four’ that were thrown at him.

Tendulkar singled out the India tour of Australia in 1999, which his team lost 0-3, as the toughest series he was involved in. “They had a great side. In a team of 11, they had seven-eight match-winners and the rest were also very good,” Tendulkar said. “It was not so easy to beat a team like that. That team dominated world cricket for a number of years. They had their own style of play and aggression. The brand of cricket they played in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney Tests impressed the whole world. Everyone wanted to play that brand of cricket.”

Tendulkar has mesmerised the world over with his straight drive, showing the full face of the bat, with Sunil Gavaskar calling on air umpteen times “What a shot, W.H.A.T. A S.H.O.T”.

Tendulkar reiterated that straight drive was his favourite stroke ahead of the cover drives and pull shots. “Play straight, play straight. That was something my coach kept telling me. I started playing this stroke in my building while growing up. I would pick the middle path, which was the scoring zone. The main gate was the boundary and if the ball hit it directly, it was six. If you did not get the shot right, if you hit over the first wall, you were out. You had to hit straight. The straighter you played, the safer. Also, there is no fielder straight (behind the umpire),” the 200-Test veteran explained.

There was also no prizes for guessing which format Tendulkar liked between Tests and ODIs. “I am very clear in my mind that it is Test cricket. Most of the guys will say that. In Test cricket, the bowlers try to get you out. In one-day cricket, you get a couple of (good) overs and the field is spread. In Test cricket, you nick and you are back in the dressing room."

“In one-day cricket, you keep up with the pace of the game. In Tests, you control the pace of the game. You can come back in Tests even if you make a mistake. You get greatest satisfaction when you do well in Test cricket and do something special for the team."

“In one-day cricket, you get a hard day, then you get two-three days rest to recover. In Test cricket, you cannot make excuses. You have to prepare physically and mentally, you have to do it pre-match and post-match. Sometimes, the fifth day becomes the most important day of a Test. You cannot relax one bit,” he said.

You would expect a fiery bowlers like Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Shoaib Akhtar or kings of swing Richard Hadlee or Wasim Akram to be named as the toughest bowler that Tendulkar has faced. But Tendulkar considered former South Africa captain Late Hansie Cronje, who bowled gentle medium-pace, as the toughest bowler he faced.

“If I start counting the bowlers from 1989, there will be nothing less than 25 real world-class bowlers I faced. But, I didn’t particularly enjoy batting against Hansie Cronje. I figured out I was better off at the non-striker’s end when he was bowling and that Allan Donald or anyone else, I’ll manage,” Tendulkar said