For only the second time in his 94-Test career, Sachin Tendulkar made three consecutive single-figure scores, including two successive ducks. By themselves, the stats are not worrying, especially since two of those dismissals came courtesy dodgy umpiring decisions. But what the string of low scores has done is to draw focus on a technical flaw that has crept into Tendulkar's batting; one that is clearly demonstrated in his stats over the last few months. He has been trapped in front of his wicket six times in his last seven innings; out of the 958 runs he has scored since India's tour to Zimbabwe last year, a whopping 42% have come in the arc from midwicket to square leg, while he has scored only 9% in the V between mid-off and mid-on –a region where he was once prolific.

Tendulkar is playing across the line far too often. Deliveries pitched on the stumps that he would normally have played with a straight bat into the V are now being worked away behind square with the bat face closed. Result? More chances of missing the ball and being struck on the pads.

Being the master that he is, Tendulkar is still good enough to get away with it, as he showed us with that breathtakingly improvised 103 against England at Ahmedabad. Then, confronted with an 8-1 off-side field, he repeatedly moved outside the line of the ball and flicked superbly to the midwicket fence, forcing England's captain Nasser Hussain to abandon that ploy.

But there was a difference. Tendulkar was past his fifty and had spent more than 150 minutes at the crease when he started working deliveries across the line. By then, he had gauged the pace and bounce in the wicket, as also the quality of the attack.

In the West Indies, however, there seems to be an unwise haste to play across the line early in his innings. He was lucky on the first day at Port-of-Spain: there were at least two very good shouts that might have, on another occasion, gone in favour of the bowler. They didn't, and Tendulkar rode his luck to his 29th hundred. However, the flaw showed up again the next morning, when he came out to resume his innings on 113. He'd added just four more runs, and possibly, hadn't got his eye in. Yet he attempted the flick to a ball pitched on middle-and-off, and this time wasn't as lucky.

His lack of footwork early in his innings on this tour has compounded the problem. Normally so decisive in his footwork, he has tended to play from the crease, making it easier for the umpire to rule in the bowler's favour.

It probably requires only a slight technical adjustment for Tendulkar to get rid of the flaw. According to master technician Sunil Gavaskar, his tendency to move back and across before the ball is delivered is making him play across the line. The solution: to stay still and move into line only after the ball is bowled.

Knowing Tendulkar's quest for perfection, it's more than likely that he is already working in the nets to wean himself out of this habit. The only other time he had a similar horror run – scores of 1, 6 and 0 in South Africa in 1992-93 – he came back with 437 runs in his next five completed innings. Expect a similar run-glut this time.

S Rajesh is sub editor of Wisden.com India.

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