Indian captain Sourav Ganguly defended the performance of batting star Sachin Tendulkar during the ICC Champions Trophy, telling his critics to get off his back.

Tendulkar failed to start during the pool and semi-final stages, forcing Ganguly to change the batting order in the final.

"Sachin would have batted at number three yesterday as well, had he got the chance. He didn't get runs in two games, that happens with everybody but then a lot of people put a lot of unnecessary pressure on him so we thought it would be good for him to go with the ball being hard - that's what he's used to. Then he could score a few boundaries early on and the pressure would be off him," said the Indian captain.

Earlier in the week Tendulkar had admitted that he would prefer to bat in his normal opening role where he could dictate terms to the opposition. However, he was willing to bat in the middle order in the interests of the team.

To this, Ganguly said: "He hasn't expressed his desire to me. We're playing really well at the moment. Sachin had a fantastic series batting at number four in England. He's a quality player and it's good for the team that he bats at number four."

Once again the captain dwelt on the fact that certain people are putting pressure on Tendulkar, without clarifying whom he was talking about. "The people who put pressure on him should realise that we need to win as a team. We have to stop selecting individuals and making them stars; we need to pick an eleven and back them," he said.

© CricInfo Ltd.