Sachin Tendulkar, the bowler - What if he turned it a little more?

Experts will argue that his batting might have suffered if he took bowling a little more seriously. Then again he is Sachin Tendulkar, the man with the Midas touch. What if Sachin the batsman was Sachin the all rounder?

In 1988, Dennis Lillie rejected Sachin as a fast bowler in the MRF pace academy. That might have stopped him from bowling quick but it could not shake his spirit to bowl when required.

Reminiscence of his past days

The final over he bowled against South Africa in the Hero Cup final, 1993 is still etched in the memories of his million fans. Taking his team to a memorable cup victory, Sachin showed his might with the ball that night in Kolkata as the Proteas were in awe of his variations. There were also shades of a consistent leg-break bowler during the late nineties when he rattled partnerships with his wicked turns and wrong ones. There were also many occasions when he seamed the bowl better than an opening bowler. Though his differential bowling technique was less of an asset for team India, but his present and past colleagues will agree that he was more than just a handful contributor.

Sachin’s bowling record in ODIs can easily be termed more than satisfactory. With 154 wickets to his name in 463 matches, Tendulkar played the role of a partnership breaker throughout his career. It was only after his shoulder injury that he started bowling less. Now one might wonder, could he have broken a few more records if he took bowling more professionally…Only Sachin can answer that.

That wicked turn on day 1…

On the first day of his penultimate Test match, the maestro was given the ball by MS Dhoni. He did what he does best, perform, intimidate and dominate. Tendulkar picked up the wicket of Shane Shillingford in his first over. In his miniscule spell of just two overs, he managed to get a lot of turn on a fairly new first day pitch.