Sachin is now ‘fine’

Even if Umesh Yadav doesn’t actually make an impact in the India colours, he’ll definitely be remembered for making the country collectively miss a heartbeat or two.

All by striking Sachin Tendulkar on the helmet during Thursday’s nets session at the Claremont Cricket Club, near Newlands in Cape Town, which houses Team India coach Gary Kirsten’s academy.

The senior-most pro, however, is “doing well” after ducking into a rising delivery from the 23-year-old.

In a message texted to The Telegraph, on Friday night, Sachin said: “I’m doing well now... We had a long practice session today, in fact... It was one hit and I’m fine... Cheers.”

Vidarbha’s Yadav is one of the two rookie quicks selected for the Test series in South Africa. Saurashtra’s Jaydev Unadkat, highly rated by Wasim Akram, is the other one.

An agency report quoted Kirsten as saying: “You can’t control these situations in a nets environment... It even happens in India... Guys get hit on the glove and so on... You just have to hope nothing too serious occurs.

“Interestingly enough, one net here is pretty flat and low and the other is going around a bit. The guys wanted to use the one which was more spicy... I’m pretty excited about that.”

Sachin was, of course, batting on the strip with spice. His way of preparing for the three-match series, between the No.1 and No.2 Test teams, which begins on December 16.

All except three players — Zaheer Khan, Gautam Gambhir and Murali Vijay — have already reached South Africa for what promises to be a blockbuster of a contest.

The trio won’t have time to acclimatise, but will at least be high on confidence, following the 5-0 whipping of New Zealand in the ODIs.