Sports India

Sachin Tendulkar today said he was “feeling quite good” about his shoulder, which was operated upon nearly four months ago, but refused to confirm whether he would be available for the tri-series in Sri Lanka next month.

“I was in England for six weeks, undergoing a training programme and even played practice matches … I am feeling quite good, but cannot say now whether I will go or not (to Sri Lanka). There is a fitness test to be done,” Tendulkar said at a press conference here.

The Mumbai batsman has been out of action since March 26 when he underwent a shoulder surgery. He missed the one-day series against England at home and the entire tour of the Caribbean where India played five ODIs and four Tests.

The world record holder for most Test hundreds said the current injury was the most challenging of all he had suffered in his 16-year career but denied he was rushing back from it.

“That’s why I did not go to the West Indies. Certain injuries need x-number of days to recover and you have to respect that,” he said. “I think probably this one (injury) is biggest of all I have had. It has been tough, and taken a long time to fix it and get back into action,” he added.

Tendulkar, who was here for a promotional event, said India “played extremely well” in the Caribbean, where they lost the one-dayers 1-4 and won the Tests 1-0, their first series-win in 35 years.

“The one-dayers were disappointing but we made it up for it in Tests. We had couple of chances earlier (to win the series, in 1997 and 2002), but finally we have won,” Tendulkar said. “In the first and second Tests, we were a bit unlucky. But we showed in the fourth Test that perseverance pays.”

He refused to go with West Indies captain Brian Lara’s opinion that the Indians missed Tendulkar. “Eventually 11 players play the game. An individual is not going to win the game on his own, but the team can,” he said.

Anil Kumble came in for special praise from the master batsman. “Anil is a great player. He doesn’t need to prove anything. He has shown great determination to be where he is now, with more than 500 wickets. He will walk into any team,” he said.

Tendulkar felt the batsmen could have done better but did not make a direct comment on the team’s performance. “It is not right for me to sit in United Kingdom and talk without knowing what is happening in the dressing room,” he said. “I think in this series we could have made big scores but again, it is the guy who actually goes out and plays who can say what went wrong. I have also made mistakes in the past. It is a matter of when you make those mistakes. I don’t want to make any loose comments,” he added.