Adelaide, Jan 22 (IANS) Australian batsman Michael Hussey has termed India’s batting great Sachin Tendulkar a “cricket god” ahead of the fourth and final Test beginning at the Adelaide Oval here Tuesday.
Hussey commended the Indian batsman on his ability to handle pressure and perform so well at the highest level for such a long time.
“He is a cricket god and yet how he handles himself in India, in a cricket-mad country, where just to walk on the street means being mobbed by thousands and thousands of people, to handle all this and put it aside and perform for India for over 20 years in international cricket is just amazing,” he told reporters here.
Hussey said that watching Tendulkar bat from close quarters has been a great experience for him, adding that the master blaster has played well in the ongoing series and his elusive 100th hundred is around the corner.
“He has played brilliantly. Watching him closely, his footwork, the time he has and the straight bat, both off the front and backfoot, he is playing really well. If he continues it is inevitable (the hundred).
“That is the way batting goes. Sometimes you are playing well but one ball, one mistake and you are back to the pavilion. I am sure to his own mind he is batting well, his bat is as broad as ever at the moment,” Hussey added.
Hussey said he admires how Tendulkar has approached the game in more than a two-decade old career.
“I don’t know what he is going through mentally. I haven’t scored 99 centuries though I would love to be in that position and feel the pressure. I have admired him how he has gone through his whole career. To score consistently at such a long period of time and deal with external pressures is amazing,” he said.
