InterviewSolution
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Read the passage given below and answer the questions that follow :1. His heavy bat was a major talking point whenever Sachin Tendulkar battled injuries in his over-twodecade-long career but the iconic cricketer said he was never convinced about giving it up for a lighter one as his timing got affected every time he tried the change. In his autobiography `Playing It My Way', Tendulkar wrote that he was asked several times to try a lighter bat but it never worked for him.2. "I used a pretty heavy bat and I was sometimes encouraged to move to a lighter one. Again, I did try but I never felt comfortable, as my whole bat swing depended on that weight. When I was hitting a drive, I needed the weight to generate the power. It was all to do with the timing," he explains. The alltime leading scorer in the game also offered an interesting take on how to hold the bat. "To me the bat should be an extension of your arm, and if you've reached the stage where it's become an extension of your arm, why do you need to change ? What mattered to me most when I was batting was feeling comfortable. As long as I felt comfortable, it didn't matter where I was playing or who I was playing against. If you make technical adjustments, such as moving to a lighter bat, to cope with different conditions, there's a risk of making yourself feel uncomfortable and of thinking too much about your technique," he says.3. Tendulkar has advised budding batsmen against too much experimentation, saying, "the bat should be an extension of your arm" and there is no need for a change in technique if "you have reached that stage". "People have often commented on my own grip, which is very low down on the handle. It all goes back to when I started playing cricket when I was eleven, with my brother Ajit, who is ten years older. As I didn't have a bat of my own, I had to use Ajit's full-size bat and the only way I could cope with the weight at that age was to hold the bat right at the bottom of the handle," Tendulkar writes. "Some coaches suggested changing my grip, and I did experiment, but it never felt right. I had got used to feeling the end of the handle pressing against the inside of my forearm and if I gripped the bat further up I didn't have that, and batting just didn't feel natural. "That's not to say that my technique didn't change at all, though. Throughout my career, I was always looking to improve and constantly tried new things to cope with different situations."4. Tendulkar said one must try to read the bowler's mind rather than thinking too much about "your own batting". "I've always felt that I've batted best when my mind has been at the bowler's end of the pitch, not at my end. In fact, for both batsmen and bowlers, I've always believed that cricket is played best when your mind is at the opposite end and that problems occur when your mind is stuck at your own end. "For example, if a bowler is thinking too much about bowling no-balls, he's not going to be able to bowl what he wants to bowl. Instead, his mind should be at the batsman's end, focusing on where he's going to pitch the ball, which way he's going to swing it and so on. As a batsman, if I'm not consciously worrying about my footwork or my backlift or my wrist-work, then I know that I'm in the right space, because my mind needs to be at the opposite end, figuring out what the bowler is trying to do. There's no time to think about both ends at the same time," he says.On the basis of your understanding of the above passage, answer any four of the following questions in 30 – 40 words each :(a) What could be the problems facing a cricketer in making technical adjustments?(b) What advice did Tendulkar give to budding batsmen ? (c) Why did he start using a heavy bat ?(d) Why did the advice given by coaches not work for him ?(e) Why is it important to read a bowler's mind ? |
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Answer» (a) In making technical adjustments, a cricketer might feel uncomfortable or might give too much stress over technique. (b) Tendulkar advised to budding batsmen that too much experimentation should not be done and techniques should not be changed if one is uncomfortable. (c) He started using a heavy bat because his timing got affected everytime he tried to change. (d) The advice given by coaches that he should change the grip didn’t work for him because it didn’t feel right and natural to him. (e) It is important to read a bowler’s mind because a batsman can play best when his mind is at the opposite end. |
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