Sachin Tendulkar puts his ‘weight’ behind World Cup

When Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar gets on the field on Saturday to whack the ball out of shape against Bangladesh in Mirpur, his shoulders would be well-adjusted to carrying the burden of a billion hopes.

In the run-up to the World Cup, the little master is using bats heavier than the ones he already uses during the matches.

In the process, he could be straining his shoulder and risking a relapse of the painful tennis elbow. But Sachin knows that this could well be his last attempt at the trophy — which is the only one missing from his showcase — and is pulling out all the stops for it.

At the pre-World Cup camp that was held in Bangalore, Tendulkar received five tailor-made cricket bats which are 75-80 grams heavier than his match bats.
Since 2007, Tendulkar has been using bats weighing around 1.25 kg in the match as well as practice. However, this time, he has ordered for bats weighing 1.33 kg, which were supplied to him in Bangalore last week.

Tendulkar has been practising with these new bats during the camp. However, he is unlikely to use these new bats for the World Cup matches where he will rely on his tried and tested relatively lighter ones.

In fact, by using the heavier bats, he is even risking his career and his health further. Tendulkar has actually been advised to use a lighter bat after his tennis elbow injury in mid-2000s, and is walking the thin line.

Experts believe that it’s a risky proposition for him to use a heavy bat as another injury could end his career once and for all.

But it is learnt that Tendulkar is practising with heavier bats keeping in mind the first Powerplay session when the players like to go over the top of the fielders who have to respect the field restrictions.

“Basically, cricketers use heavy bats during practice to increase their bat speed in the match, when they play with lighter bat. I think with the Powerplay in mind, players are using heavier bats in practice to get that extra punch during the match,” says former India cricketer WV Raman.

However, it’s not just Tendulkar who has increased the weight of his practice bat. Even Virender Sehwag is using a heavier bat during the practice session. According to people close to Sehwag in Bangalore, his bat is heavier than the one he used during the New Zealand series last year.

Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yusuf Pathan are two others in the team who are also using heavier bats to take advantage of the power-play field restrictions.