October 02 Wednesday 2002
Ganguly defends decision on Tendulkar batting slot

COLOMBO: Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly on Monday defended his decision to send in batting star Sachin Tendulkar in the middle-order instead of as an opener in the ICC Champions Trophy here.

"Sachin had a fantastic series batting at number four (in the NatWest Trophy) in England," said Ganguly after his team shared the trophy with Sri Lanka following the rain-hit replayed final at the Premadasa Stadium. "He's a quality batsman and it's good for the team that he bats at number four. The people who put pressure on him should realise we need to win as a team.

"We have to stop picking individuals and making them stars. We need to pick an eleven and back them."

Tendulkar started opening the innings in One-day Internationals on the 1994 tour to New Zealand before being replaced by Virender Sehwag during six matches with England at home early this year. Tendulkar has said he would like to regain his opener's slot instead of batting at number four because he felt more comfortable at the top.

"He has not expressed his desire to me," said Ganguly of Tendulkar, who has scored more than 11,000 runs with a world record 33 centuries in the shorter version of the game.

Tendulkar batted at number three in the replayed day-night final against Sri Lanka, scoring an unbeaten seven before the game was abandoned.

"Sachin would have batted at number three yesterday as well had he got a chance," said Ganguly.

Tendulkar did not get an opportunity to bat on Sunday as the match was washed out after just two overs during the Indian innings. "He did not get runs in two games," said Ganguly. "That happens with everybody, but people had put a lot of pressure on him so we thought it would be good for him to go with the ball being hard.

"That's what he's used to. We thought he could hit a few boundaries and the pressure would be off him."