Sachin Tendulkar lavished praise on India’s bowling performance in their World Cup opener against South Africa at the Rose Bowl in Southampton on Wednesday.

Jasprit Bumrah gave India early breakthroughs by dismissing openers Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock, while Yuzvendra Chahal bamboozled the Proteas with four wickets as they could manage just 227 for nine after winning the toss and opting to bat first.

According to Sachin, India’s bowling performance was “incredible” and he lauded Bumrah for giving the team a good start.

“India’s bowling performance was incredible. The way they started was something special.

“I would like to single out Bumrah here, for the start that he gave was incredible. He generated that pace and the bounce he got off the pitch was something special. He created that pressure on the batsmen, who were not able to rotate the strike,” the icon and former India captain said during the break after the first session.

Sachin also had a mention for Kohli’s “proactive” captaincy.

“If you look at the field placement, it was proactive captaincy and not reactive. So, all in all, a great start followed by a special bowling by Chahal,” Sachin said.

Sachin was also a tad surprised with South Africa’s decision to bat first despite conditions being favourable for seamers. According to Sachin, the Proteas’ decision was due to the “excess baggage” they carried from the defeats in their previous two matches, against England and Bangladesh.

“The decision to bat first had a big question mark. I felt there was some excess baggage being carried from their past defeats in this World Cup.

“In a tournament like the World Cup, you play different opponents at different venues and you have to assess the conditions accordingly. If I was the captain, I would’ve been tempted to bowl first and try and put pressure on the Indian batting line-up because there were clouds around and conditions were slightly heavy…

“So, as I said, had I been the captain, I would have been tempted to bowl first and not carry any excess baggage from the past two games,” Sachin said.

Talking about how a team should approach 220-plus totals in overcast conditions, Sachin said the focus should be on looking to play risk-free cricket and avoid losing early wickets.

“Teams have got to approach it like a Test match… Nobody likes to lose early wickets. So, I think openers should approach it without a rush, when they are not chasing a big total.

“If I were in the openers’ position, I’d assess how much movement is there off the pitch, and what kind of bounce (rival) bowlers generate in the first two overs.”