Tendulkar advises team rest before WT20

Indian batting sensation Sachin Tendulkar has suggested that the players of the Indian cricket team take adequate rest before heading to England to defend their ICC World Twenty20 title in less than two weeks.

With his Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign coming to an end, Sachin Tendulkar will now be out of action for a while, after having opted out of the ICC World Twenty20 which gets underway in England on June 5.

The IPL has finally come to an end and a winner will be declared today as Deccan Chargers take on Bangalore Royal Challengers in the final. India’s highest run-getter in Tests and one-day internationals Tendulkar believes that the IPL served as good preparation for the upcoming World Twenty20.

“You are playing the same format and you are playing against the best bowlers and also not in home conditions. So, I think this is a good preparation except that the players should take adequate rest between the IPL and the ICC World Twenty20."

Tendulkar believes that India - who are the defending champions of the World Twenty20 after winning the inaugural edition in South Africa in 2007 - can win the title for the second successive time in England this year.

"I think individually the boys are doing well. Look at Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, MS (Dhoni)…In the bowling department, Zaheer was doing well before he got injured and RP Singh has come up in leaps and bounds.”

But the batting maestro did admit that the opening combination is a slight chink in their armour as both opening batsmen – Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag - were not in their usual destructive form at the IPL.

"Only our opening combination of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag hasn't fired. I think the key would be how soon they can shed the fatigue factor. They have been playing back to back for a long time now and it would be difficult to keep up the tempo.”

India plays its opening match of the ICC World Twenty20 2009 against Bangladesh on the second day of the tournament.