Tendulkar offers tips to younger Indian batsmen

Sachin Tendulkar offered tips to younger members of the Indian team in the first outdoor session which the players managed on Thursday evening after a long lay-off due to rains.

Persistent rains over the past week in Melbourne and Brisbane had restricted sufficient net and practice sessions for the Indian batsmen. The visitors play their next match against Australia on Sunday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Journalists gathered to witness the Indians train as John Gloster made the squad go through routine stretching exercises. Tendulkar took budding young batsmen Robin Uthappa and Suresh Raina aside and spoke at length about the conditions and pitches which they would come up against in the coming few weeks in the ongoing Commonwealth Bank Triangular series which also features Sri Lanka.

Tendulkar then reserved a good part of his tips for fellow Mumbai batsman Rohit Sharma who seemed eager to gain as many words or wisdom as possible from the master.

"Sachin has so much of experience and he is eager to share it with the youngsters. They would benefit greatly by his advice,” Lalchand Rajput, assistant manager of the Indian team was quoted as saying.