A memorable aspect of Sachin Tendulkar's double century in the Sydney Test of the 2003-04 tour of Australia remains that he didn't play a single cover-drive through the course of his innings. However, the legend has now revealed it wasn't something he exactly planned for before going out there to bat.
Tendulkar said it was more about being disciplined outside off in order to play a long innings after enduring an indifferent run leading into that Test. Tendulkar's elder brother Ajit, his biggest confidant, had asked the right-hander to concentrate hard and not let his attacking instinct come in his way, also challenging him to stay not out.
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As it turned out, the Master Blaster saw the Australians trying to hide the ball outside off and play around his patience, which only got him more determined to follow what Ajit had told him.
“I had a discussion with my brother. We normally used to discuss the reason behind my dismissal," Tendulkar told Aakash Chopra on his YouTube channel.
"He (Ajit) told me ‘I don’t think there’s any flaw technically. But mentally there is a flaw in the shot selection. You’re pressing the pedal too hard. There’s no need to accelerate so much. Which shot is dismissing you, you need to analyse that’.
"He challenged me to stay not out because he felt no bowler could get me out. So, I accepted it."
“Not playing the cover drive wasn’t part of my plan but the moment I went out to the ground and I saw that the Australians are trying to play with my patience and are bowling all balls outside off. That’s when something inside me triggered."
"‘Ok, you are challenging me by playing with my patience. Let’s see who loses it first - me or you 11’. And then I started leaving everything. Even if I’m batting on 150 and you bowl outside off, you get a maiden, but I’m not going to play what you want me to play," he recalled.
Tendulkar's 241* and another superb SCG ton from VVS Laxman took India to an impregnable 705/7 (declared). However, the Australians survived with a draw and denied what would've been India's first Test series win down under.
Years later, in 2018-19 Aussie summer, Virat Kohli's team fulfilled that dream.
