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- 'I think Imran Tahir is a good bowler and India will have to play against him properly.'
- 'There is AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, but don’t forget Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.'
Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar says South Africa will be a tough challenge for India in the upcoming Test series and marked out Proteas leg-spinner Imran Tahir as the bowler to watch out for.
“I have never played against a South African team which was an okay side; they are always a very strong side and it is no different this time too. There is AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla, but don’t forget Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.
“I think Imran Tahir is a good bowler and India will have to play against him properly. He possibly might be one of the leading bowlers [in the series],” Tendulkar said, in Mumbai on Friday.
The 42-year-old, who played 200 Tests and 463 ODIs in a career spanning nearly 24 years, believes the series will be a closely fought one.
“Our team is a fantastic team; extremely talented and committed guys. This series is going to be exciting, be it T20s or ODIs, but for me Test series is something I am looking forward to. There is great team balance on both sides.”
South Africa have picked three frontline spinners in their Test squad, recalling leg-spinner Imran Tahir and off-break bowler Dane Piedt, along with incumbent off-spinner Simon Harmer for the four-match series.
Before the four Tests there are a three-match Twenty20 and a five-game ODI series on what is the Proteas' longest ever sub-continent tour.
The master batsman also highlighted how the introduction of computer technology -- the contrast in the pre and post-computer era in cricket -- has changed the way how teams prepare.
“When I started my career in 1989 the team meetings were done in a circle and we discussed strategy. The coach, the captain and a few senior players would talk about various things -- how they are going to bowl, how they should bat and then it was left up to each player’s each imagination and it was all about how the individual imagined.
"Then in 2003-04 the computer entered our dressing room; an analyst was introduced... who stored all our data. Initially, we all felt what this computer would teach us and that we don’t need all that. We played for so long without any help or assistance of this, so trying to accept that change was difficult.
"But along the way I realised that our team meetings were much smarter, clever; we were precise and nothing was to anyone’s imagination because at the press of a button you see everything on the screen. Like how the bowlers were going to bowl and the areas where our bowlers need to bowl to their batsmen.
"So it became very precise and I thought that was a big, big change.”