Melbourne: Former coach John Buchanan has handed Australia a blueprint to stop Sachin Tendulkar in the forthcoming series, saying the Indian batsman is susceptible to short-pitched bowling early in his innings.

Operation “Get Tendulkar” will be the key plank of Australia’s plan for the four-Test series this summer and Buchanan’s video analysis of the Indian provides crucial intelligence.

He has noticed Tendulkar’s footwork has become sluggish, especially early in his innings, making him vulnerable to quicker and shorter bowling followed by the sucker punch of a fuller delivery.

“What I’ve been seeing for a while is that his feet don’t move early in his innings and he is not very fluid early on,” Buchanan said. “That makes the good-pace short ball a great weapon. It’s something that Australia should be very conscious of this summer.”

The short ball should be followed by a full one for a favourable result, he said.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean you will get Sachin out with the shorter ball. But you can push him back on his crease and then look for a full ball, which he can tend to squirt to the slips early in his innings when he doesn’t have great control,” Buchanan said.

However, Buchanan feels Tendulkar is not playing with the same consistency.