PTI

Colombo, Aug 12: Fielding guru Jonty Rhodes says Sachin Tendulkar is too good a player to be kept out of the team only because he cannot throw from the deep and that the Indian team must shield him with next year's World Cup in mind.

"Even if he can't field from the deep, you have to have him at mid-off or mid-on and protect him. Because I don't think it is going to take a whole year till the World Cup for him to be 100 per cent fit," the former South African player-turned-fielding coach said here today.

The 37-year-old said Tendulkar would walk into any side purely as a batsman and his "discipline" would see him through the present injury situation.

"I have seen how he works as a batsman at the nets, he is very disciplined. And I expect him to do the same sort of rehab on his shoulders," Rhodes told PTI.

"It is a confidence thing for him. If he is happy that his shoulder is fine, and if you have a guy like Sachin Tendulkar who is back in form, then you have to have him in the team.

"I would be inclined to have him in the team, just based on his past performance." Rhodes was a revelation as a fielder and his breaking on to the international scene coincided with return of South Africa to international sports in the 1990s when they set the standards for and changed the dimension of fielding.