5 batsmen whose careers saw a downslide towards the end

#3 Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar batting in his last Test vs West Indies (Nov’13)

Many were of the opinion (and still are) that Tendulkar should have called time on his career after the 2011 World Cup. But it’s easy to say that when you are not the one who is sitting on 99 international centuries, just one milestone away from setting an impossible benchmark for the coming generations to emulate.

Tendulkar had a fantastic 2011 World Cup (482 runs; next only to Dilshan’s 500), and only a couple of months before that, scored his 50^th (and 51st) Test hundreds in South Africa. The subsequent dip in form in both Tests and ODIs was unexpected, although inevitable.

In the 23 Tests that he played during this period, beginning with the tour of England until the end of his career, Tendulkar did not score a single century in 39 innings. He had the lowest average amongst all specialist batsmen (bar Sehwag & Gambhir), and the emergence of youngsters made his presence all the more unwanted.

Span	Matches	Inns	n.o.	Runs	H.S.	Ave	100s	50s
15 Nov’89 – 20 Jul’11	177	290	32	14692	248*	56.95	51	58
21 Jul’11 – 14 Nov’13	23	39	1	1229	94	32.34	0	9
Career	200	329	33	15921	248*	53.78	51	68