Current pace attack is most complete India has ever had: Sachin Tendulkar

The legendary Sachin Tendulkar feels India has headed to the gruelling tour of England with "the most complete fast-bowling attack in many many years", a "luxury" that was not there during his 24 years in international cricket.

India are starting their nearly three-month tour of United Kingdom with two T20 Internationals 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 told PTI during an exclusive interaction.

The maestro, who played an incredible 200 Tests in his illustrious career, said even though India have had some quality seamers but 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 had played alongside the likes of Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar.

During the major part of his career though, Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan spearheaded the pace attacks
So does he rate this attack as more potent than some of those during his playing days, Tendulkar replied: "Yeah, I am taking that into account that (attacks of yesteryears) as well because of a reason. We have got Bhuvi, who can bat and also Hardik with good batting ability."