Shastri backs Tendulkar to score his 100th international ton

Melbourne, Feb 19(ANI): Former Indian cricketer Ravi Shastri has backed masterblaster Sachin Tendulkar to continue attacking bowlers and score his hundredth international ton.

Shastri had detected a change in Tendulkar's tactics in the Melbourne and Sydney Tests, when he passed 50 with ease only to tighten up because of the situation of the match,The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Shastri hoped that Tendulkar will achieve the milestone in Australia but added "there's no question it's weighing him down".

"That's the weight of expectation from the people of India, Australia. Anywhere he goes, the talk is of the 100th hundred. And he's human. He might not show it, he might not want to admit it, but let's face it, he's a human being and he would be feeling it from inside," he added.

Shastri, however, dismissed notions that Tendulkar was out of form despite a modest average of 32 in past seven games and this being his longest century drought.

"If you saw him batting in the first two Test matches, he was batting as well as any player from either side, if not better," Shastri said.

"It's just a case of the timing of his dismissal. I believe at times he's come close to a milestone ... he goes into a shell and plays differently as opposed to when he starts an innings. If he carries on in that fashion and maintains the tempo and forgets about the hundred, it will come," he added. (ANI)