'Tendulkar or no Tendulkar, I am looking forward to our next game': McGrath

Australian bowling spearhead Glenn McGrath said he would like to bowl in five over spells at a time in Test matches during the tour of India so that he can conserve enough energy in the prevailing humid conditions.

Speaking to the media in Mumbai on Tuesday, the speedster from Australia said "at this juncture of my career I would not want to bowl long spells and it is very tough for a fast bowler to bowl long spells in humid conditions on batsmen friendly pitches."

He added I feel it is better if the fast bowlers get short spells though it would be a big challenge for me to bowl to Indian batsmen like Sachin (Tendulkar), Dravid (Rahul) and Ganguly (Sourav)."

Queried whether he had any specific plans to bowl to Tendulkar, McGrath said "Why only Sachin (Tendulkar), I have chalked out different plans to bowl to all the top order batsmen in the India team", adding "It is a challenge for any bowler to come good on Indian pitches and I am looking forward to that kind of challenge all the time."

McGrath did not play in his team's tour opener at Nagpur and is expected to play against the Ranji champions Mumbai in the second three-day tie at the Brabourne Stadium here from February 22-24.

Asked what he felt about Tendulkar's absence from the Mumbai team, McGrath said "Tendulkar or no Tendulkar, I am looking forward to our next game."