IND v ENG 2021: Nasser Hussain explains why he asked Giles to bowl negative line against Tendulkar in 2001

Hussain had frustrated Tendulkar by asking Giles to bowl in the rough area outside the leg-stump.

As England gearing up to take on Team India in the four-Test series from February 5 in Chennai, former English skipper Nasser Hussain revisited the 2001 tour of India, in which he frustrated the legendary Sachin Tendulkar by asking his bowlers to bowl a negative line.

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Hussain had orchestrated the plan with his spinner Ashley Giles in the third Test of the 2001 series in Bangalore. He told Giles to bowl in the rough area outside the leg-stump and the left-arm spinner kept doing it, which left Tendulkar frustrated as he was not able to score freely.

When Sachin was on 90, he decided to break the shackles by dancing down the track but failed to make a connection and was out stumped for the only time in his career in Test cricket.

“I wasn't flying over to India thinking, 'This is what we'll do for Sachin'. It evolved as the three-match series went on and we found ourselves going into the last Test one down. As the pitches got flatter and there was nothing in them for our bowlers, I just had to think outside the box as captain.

“When we got to Bangalore it was clear 90 per cent of the pitch was flat but outside the right-hander's leg stump there was a bit of rough and it was spinning out of there,” Hussain wrote in his column for Daily Mail.

The former England captain came up with the plan after he sensed that Tendulkar did not like being tied down.

“So I looked at Tendulkar and thought, 'Where would they prefer Ashley to bowl? The bit where it isn't spinning or the bit that gives Giles something to play with?' The plan, then, was for the left-arm spinner Giles to bowl over the wicket into that rough and you could see Tendulkar didn't like it. It frustrated him. And in the end he was stumped by keeper James Foster,” Hussain wrote.

England were criticised of bowling a ‘negative line’ but Nasser Hussain could care less as he was keen on dismissing Tendulkar.

“It is harsh on Giles that to an extent he is remembered more for that plan to Tendulkar than for much of what he achieved with England. He was a better bowler than that. But he did it for me as his captain and he did it for his team.

“It was not to the taste of everyone. The then MCC president Ted Dexter said our tactics were against the spirit of cricket and called for a revision of the laws.

“But I was more interested in trying to win a Test for England in difficult conditions against India,” Hussain said.