Sachin Tendulkar: The genius will be missed

Sachin Tendulkar

The best Indian batsman abroad:It was in 1992 when Sachin Tendulkar first toured Australia. He was just 19-year- old then with absolutely zero experience of playing in diverse pitches of Australia. He was pitted against an attack which was probably one of the best in the world at that point of time with McDermott and Hughes spearheading them. But that did not prevent the teenager from Mumbai to announce his arrival to the international arena. He struck not one but two centuries down under – one in the spinning track of SCG and the other in the fast bouncy track of WACA. The innings in Perth especially saw extraordinary stroke play from Sachin who sent the ball to the fence as much as 14 times in his 228 ball stint of 114. It did not stop there. He has always played better in pitches where others struggled a lot. When someone talks of overseas performance, people tend to go with rating Dravid over Sachin. But if one looks seriously at the performance of both the individuals abroad, it will be very much obvious that the little master has always been way ahead of the Karnataka batsman. Barring his match winning double century in Adelaide against an Aussie side which did not have the likes of McGrath and Warne and his maiden test century in Johannesburg, Dravid’s performances in both Australia and South Africa have not been anything great as compared to Sachin. On the other hand, Dravid has always played well in England, New Zealand and West Indies, where Sachin was no mug either. Sachin has scored multiple centuries precisely everywhere and has been better than any of his contemporaries. So, there is no question that Sachin has been the best batsman for India overseas.

The only batsman with no weakness:As a bowler, either you should produce an absolute gem at Sachin or just hope that he makes a fatal mistake in order to get him out. But for those two ways, you can never purchase his wicket. He has been an artist in batting fully aware of all the nuances involved in it. Not only he is far technically sound than the others but also he has in his repertoire all the shots in the book. There is no specific ball you can bowl at him considering it as his Achilles’ heel. He knows to play in the ‘V” and can unleash his stokes on all parts of the ground. A good ball or a bad ball, whatever you bowl, it hardly matters to him. He can find the boundaries in so many ways. Since blessed with variety of strokes, he can adapt himself to various kinds of conditions. No one has ever threatened him continuously with his bowling. Be it cutting or pulling, caressing or flicking, he is an expert in everything. Vivian Richards, another flamboyant great, at least had a weakness called aggression but Sachin has had nothing of that sort. Even if he experiences a couple of off days or something with respect to one particular game, he is good enough to adjust himself and excel in the other part of the game. Who can forget his double hundred in SCG where he kept on scoring runs on the on side totally curbing his off side strokes!

Safest fielder, versatile part timer and what not?Only a few days back in an ODI match in Ranchi against Australia, we saw the Indian team missing as much as six to seven catches. This is the same Indian team which boasts itself of having fielders of the caliber of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh. None of those special fielders was available in the side two decades back. Of course, the team had Ajay Jadeja and Robin Singh who were supposed to be brilliant on the field but were still not good enough, considering international standards. But if there ever has been a fielder who has forever remained safest in the team then it has to be Sachin Tendulkar. In his twenty four years of international career, I cannot recall an instance where he has dropped a sitter only to cut a sorry figure at the end of it. When a ball is catchable he hardly drops it, be it anywhere on the field. During a world cup match in 1992 against West Indies, just as a 19-year old, though he fell flat on the ground head first while taking a catch of Phil Simmons at deep mid on, he managed to hold on to the ball, bearing the pain he had to endure. That was just one example. Forget about his fielding, even as a part time bowler he has had his success. Just like Colin Miller and Andrew Symonds, he has been able to bowl both medium pace and spin. He even outscored Shane Warne in spin department, turning the ball from east to west and north to south during Australia’s tour of India in 1998. In the first match of the series he took five wickets for just 32 runs bowling his allotted quota of 10 overs and in fact all of those who got out to him were top order batsmen. He may not be an all-rounder but the fact is that he has always donned that role whenever required.

So the stage is all set and the day is fixed. What we never wanted to happen is finally going to happen. The father time spares no one although it has to be said that he has remained kind to his son for the good part of 24 years. In a couple of weeks’ time, Sachin will leave cricket grounds forever. Once he made his exit, cricket would have been orphaned by that gentleman who had been the best in everything what he did. We will miss him and will keep on missing him until anyone comes closer to achieving whatever he has done. That for me looks unlikely to happen, at least not in this millennium.