Sachin back in office

During his three-week vacation abroad,Sachin Tendulkars only public appearance was at Wimbledon.

During his three-week vacation abroad,Sachin Tendulkars only public appearance was at Wimbledon. After touching base here,Tendulkar chose a mid-week Wednesday to return to work,when he hit the nets at the Mumbai Cricket Associations indoor academy in preparation of the Sri Lankan tour.

His mere presence at the Bandra Kurla Complex facility meant young trainees at the academy werent rushing home from the suburban academy to seek comfort from the heavy rains,and instead chose to watch Tendulkar easing into practice mode. Youngsters,who were packing their bags waited to catch glimpse of Tendulkar while others instinctively searched for unlikely pens and pieces of paper in their kitbags so that the precious autograph wasnt missed.

Tendulkar was back wielding the bat after a long time the last being the IPL final on April 25. Hed opted out of the Asia Cup,and after the long vacation with family,a refreshed Tendulkar is now looking forward to the three-match Test series against Lanka.

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Its great to be back home after three weeks. I was on vacation with my family. We had a great time together. Looking forward to SL tour now, Tendulkar tweeted before coming to the MCA-BKC indoor academy on Wednesday afternoon.

In his more than two hours session here,Tendulkar had only a brief knocking session. He had earlier explained that many a times he preferred only knocking the ball than going the whole hog and batting in the nets. Tendulkar was zen-like in middling it straight. It didnt appear even once that hed been away from the game for two months.

Lalchand Rajput,whos been coaching young talent at the BCCI specialist batting academy,decided to stop his session for a while and advised youngsters to watch Tendulkars session. Sometimes people learn from watching greats and this was the best time for these youngsters to learn from Tendulkar. I told them to try to absorb how he (Sachin) comes up with a plan in mind. How Tendulkar is so focused. Even after achieving everything,he is still working hard like a youngster, Rajput said.

The practice over,Tendulkar is surrounded by a bunch of cricketers,boys and girls both wanting to get photographs clicked with the legend. He obliged everybody before signalling pack-up.