Mendis no match for Tendulkar, says Kambli

Mumbai: Former Indian Test player Vinod Kambli, who has been very successful on Lankan soils in the past, feels new spin sensation Ajantha Mendis will be no match for batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, who needs 172 runs to break Brian Lara’s record of highest Test aggregate, during the forthcoming Test series.

"Knowing Sachin Tendulkar’s way of batting, he will not even be thinking about someone like Mendis (yet to make his Test debut). He would not underestimate him either because for him it is the ball and not the bowler that matters," Kambli, the childhood friend of Tendulkar, has said in the Mid-Day on Friday.

"Stepping out to spinners has its own advantage and Sachin loves to do it. I am sure he (Sachin) will be at his best against the Lankan spinner – stepping out and playing them with ease," added the southpaw, who scored back-to-back centuries(125 and 120) during the 1993-94 tour under Mohammad Azharuddin’s captaincy, which India won 1-0.

"You have to step out as much as possible to an unpredictable bowler like Mendis. He is a fine bowler but I think our batsmen have also made the mistake of getting stuck on the crease while playing him in the Asia Cup final," he observed.

"Sri Lanka have made it a habit of bringing in surprise spinners, who tend to excel on home tracks. They did the same in the early 90s by playing Jayananda Warnaweera, who gave the ball a real tweak. I simply stepped out and hit him for a six as soon as he was brought on. That did the trick," he added.

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