Colombo: Monday was a day of optional nets for Team India and, guess who didn’t opt for a break? None other than Sachin Tendulkar, who really doesn’t have anything to prove.

Not that the senior-most pro wanted his sweating-it-out to make headlines. “Look, some of the other players also went for the session,” Sachin told The Telegraph as he prepared for a hair cut at the much smarter looking Taj Samudra’s swanky salon.

For the record, Sachin top-scored with 69 in the first innings of the rain-marred tour-opener which ended on Sunday. He didn’t bat in innings No.2.

Sachin is, of course, making a comeback on this tour. A groin injury made him miss the last two Tests at home versus South Africa and, then, the tri-series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan.

What has put Sachin in the spotlight even more is that he’s just 172 short of getting past Brian Lara’s record of 11,953 Test runs.

Sachin, though, made the point that the record wasn’t on his mind 24x7. “It’s not that I’m all the time conscious about those runs... I intend enjoying my cricket, that’s it.”

But, given that everybody is reminding him about that milestone, wouldn’t he be happier if those runs were out of the way quickly?

“I wouldn’t say so... As I’ve told you, I’m not all the time conscious about getting past Lara... As you know, I don’t play for records,” Sachin responded.

By then, everything was in place for the hair stylist, Samantha, to get working. Sachin was finicky, to say the least, but at the end of around 45 minutes, he thanked him for a “perfect job.”

No surprise, perhaps, that while Samantha (the salon’s manager, by the way) ran the scissors on the demanding VVIP client, most of his colleagues stood watching with envy.

The impact of a living legend, who completes 19 years of international cricket in November.