Current attack one of the best: Sachin Tendulkar

New Delhi: Sachin Tendulkar feels India are going into the tour of England with “the most complete fast-bowling attack in many, many years”, a “luxury” absent during his 24 years in international cricket.

India start their nearly three-month tour of the UK with two T20s in Ireland from June 27 but all eyes will be on the five-Test series starting August 1 in Birmingham.

“This is the most complete fast bowling attack that India have had in many many years. In my assessment, this attack would go as one of the best,” Tendulkar said.

The maestro, who played an incredible 200 Tests in his illustrious career, said even though India have had some quality seamers, they never had the luxury of an attack of such variety.

“We have the luxury where we have a swing bowler (Bhuvneshwar Kumar), a tall bowler (Ishant Sharma), a skiddy bowler (Jasprit Bumrah) and a genuine quick bowler (Umesh Yadav). It is a nice combination to have with so much variation on offer,” Tendulkar said.

Tendulkar played alongside the likes of Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar early on.  During the major part of his career though, Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan spearheaded the pace attack

So does he rate this line-up as being more potent than some of those during his playing days? “Yeah, I am taking that into account as well because of a reason. We have got Bhuvi, who can bat and also Hardik with good batting ability.”

However, Tendulkar didn’t want to comment on what kind of combination India should play.