Ahmedabad: New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has identified Indian batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar as the biggest challenge awaiting his team during the Test series in India.
Tendulkar, who has been in stunning form this year, is one century shy of becoming the first player in history to score 50 Test hundreds.
“He has been in form longer than some of our guys have been alive,” Stuff.co.nz quoted Vettori, as saying.
New Zealand coach Mark Greatbatch also pointed out Tendulkar as a huge threat, and recalled playing against him when the right-handed batsman was a teenager in 1989.
“I think he played his second test against me. It’s amazing. I am looking forward to watching him bat for about half an hour before getting caught at point,” Greatbatch said.
Tendulkar had raced to his 49th Test century in the recent Bangalore Test against Australia, making him the first Indian to score six centuries in a calendar year.
During the innings, the 37-year-old had also achieved the milestone of becoming the first batsman to score 14,000 runs in Test cricket.