Tendulkar advises Indian batsmen to be aggressive against Amir

Manchester: Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar wants the Indian batsmen bat aggressively against Pakistan's in-form pace trump card Mohammad Amir in the marquee World Cup clash on Sunday.

Unbeaten in the ongoing tournament so far, India will square off against the arch-rivals here and start overwhelming favourites due to the latter's dismal run.

"I wouldn't go in with a negative mindset of playing dot balls against him. If you get an opportunity, I would encourage India to play their shots and stay positive," Tendulkar told a leading Indian news channel.

"It's not about survival, but rather going out there and even defend positively. No need to do anything different. We need to be aggressive in all departments. The body language is important - the bowler knows that you're in control if you defend confidently," he added.

Tendulkar feels Pakistan, who have won just one of their three matches so far, will be targetting Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma on Sunday.

"Rohit and Virat are the two more experienced players in the line-up and Pakistan would be focusing on getting them early without any doubt as that opens the game for them," he said.

"Amir and Wahab Riaz will definitely target their wickets early on. But Rohit and Virat should also be looking to play long innings. The plan should be that the rest of the guys play around them," he added.