HYDERABAD: Watching the Indian team nets two days before the start of the first Test against

New Zealand, it's apparent why Sachin Tendulkar has weathered 23 lo ng years of pressure and still continues to deliver for his team: His focus and dedication is second to none. While some other legends of the game and his contemporaries have come and gone, the Little Master seems to have the energy and drive to carry on even at the age of 39. One of the reasons Sachin has continued to succeed while most others have faded away is his eagerness to keep learning. Despite having scored 100 international centuries and amassing 15,470 Test and 18,426 ODI runs, he continues to be one o f the finest pupils of the game. On Tuesday, Tendulkar chose to continue his education under the watchful eyes of coach Duncan Fletcher. Sachin took to the nets with rookie Cheteshwar Pujara after openers Gautam Gambh ir and Virender Sehwag had had a 30-minute hit. Sachin faced up to the likes of Ishant Sharma and Zaheer Khan and looked quite comfortable in the middle. There were, however, a few misses and false strokes, which didn't evade Fletcher 's hawk eye. As soon as it was Pujara's turn to bat, Sachin walked over to Fletc her and the duo were involved in an animated talk, with Fletcher seeming to poin t out some flaws. The 'little student' then got back to the nets when his turn c ame again and tried to iron out the flaws all over again. After every couple of minutes, he would return to Fletcher and chat some more. T he whole process went on for a little over half an hour. There were times when P ujara would indicate that it was time for Sachin to come over and bat, but the M umbaikar was so engrossed in his talk with Fletcher that every time he would tel l Pujara to continue knocking. After finishing his batting session, Sachin he didn't remove his pads. While mos t others gleefully returned to the comfort of the dressing room, he was out in t he middle, talking again to Fletcher and often finetuning his strokes. The other batsman who seemed very intent on his batting was southpaw Gambhir. Af ter finishing his nets against the medium-pacers, he went to the spinners' net a nd spent a considerable amount of time. After that, he took the help of a support staff and tried to hone his technique against short-pitched deliveries. Ishant, who is coming off an injury layoff, continued to impress as he went full steam against the top-order batsmen. Zaheer Khan, who didn't bowl on Monday, wa s back in the thick of things. Umesh Yadav too was pretty lethal as he made