Comeback!!!.When that word is uttered, many people in cricketing fraternity cite Mohinder Amarnath's string of comebacks (which includes heroic comeback and the subsequent on the top performance in 1983 world cup) and Sourav Ganguly's comeback to the Indian squad after he was sidelined by controversies brought forth by Greg Chappell.But wait a sec,before you make a final decision on a fairytale comeback tell me how about this one?. After amassing hundreds of thousands of runs as he is born to do exactly that all of a sudden his golden touch and dominance of 18 years is questioned and he is made to look like a mere mortal where blasphemies were hurled at him to stop breathing runs.
Two years pass and then the same man scales just another n-th peak for the n-th time which not only reverberates the irresistible dominance once he had but also his genius that featured a pinnacle array of impeccable displays .The best part is how and at what rate these peaks were scaled after those stupid criticisms.Defining this as a comeback might be little catchy.Because he never went missing from the picture and he was never missed from Indian cricket.If so then how come it could be a comeback?.However in another perspective he has shown the morons who called for his retirement by implicitly saying that they should retire from speaking non-sense by his performances.
Not only that, he also managed to show that "A lion is a lion no matter whether it is 16 or 60" by tantalizingly massacring foxes by his mere stare.(Well,2 foxes now have confessed that they are sick of seeing this phenomenon piling up runs). What augurs the mania on him and his sort-of-comeback is the fact that he has floored down a red-hot batsmen like sehwag (who is redefining test cricket) to reclaim No.1 spot in ICC test rankings when some pricks thought he will be sitting in home already at 37.
Forget about it,if i start to enumerate his greatness not only this blog would run out of space but also the entire blogger and wordpress.And most importantly i must not have enough skills to put up a good writing on this Legendary legend when greatest of great cricketers and writers find it difficult to capture his greatness in words.But yet i wanted to write this only to pay homage to this uncrowned king of hearts.While talking about many of his golden attributes like his fabulous dominating presence for over two decades,his unbelievable statistics that reflects all that a batsman can achieve and his repertoire for playing innings that would be possible for others only in their dream and his range of shots one important thing must not be forgotten that distinguishes him.The class and the quality!!!!..That should be the one reason why he is so mesmerizing and spellbinding.
Certainly its great to see him scoring hundreds and making all those records nevertheless the real treat is not in watching his tons being scored or in seeing him crossing mile stones but in relishing this artists every move on the field.Yup.He is more of a artist that appeals most to me and the million others than his unrepeatable heroics. There is more about the artistic style than the substance he has.The spectator is more transfixed to watch him belt down a Brett Lee delivery down the track with double the amount of speed it was delivered and defining a new kinda shot (Coz that particular shot was named Bullet drive as the ball traveled like a bullet and even in the replays it was raising to the fence) than watching him score a century.
Personally i like his straight drive,flick and cover drives.Nothing gets better than watching him play these shots.They quote VVS Laxman for style and elegance,Rahul Dravid for solidity and technique,Brain Lara for temperament and determination,Dhoni for power hitting,Hayden and Gilchrist for lethal strokeplay.But if one likes yo see all this and some more attributes in one man then you have to see Sachin Tendulkar.This is not just for the sake of saying but an obvious truth which has been accepted by everyone.The words that i read in an article in cricinfo sums this up" It is possible when Tendulkar bats to see through him the whole history of batsmanship: WG Grace's playing back, Ranjitsinhji's playing to leg, Bradman's playing across the line, Gavaskar's stoic endurance, Richards' instinct to dominate. "
Showing the whole history of batsman-ship!!!!...Thats the essence...Leaving this comeback and all that aside one more thing which forms the best part of his recent times is his contribution in taking India to top of the Test Rankings and making Indian ODI side a more tough competitive side.As he himself puts across that he is satisfied when India wins than in instances he piles up runs.Perhaps its the finest thing happened to Indian cricket in recent times.And in that Sachin Tendulkar's part is one of the considerable one.
Yes,one of the considerable one!!!.Nothing more than that.Even though I'm a die-hard Sachin fan i understand that this golden era of Indian test cricket had not happened over night and because of a single person.It all started with Sourav Ganguly who started winning matches abroad and it was carried over by some of the throughly incredible innings from the likes of Dravid and Laxman.I think as far as batsmen are concerned these two have lot to do with test cricket in the early part of 2000s.Their partnerships in famous Eden garden Test and in Australia can not be forgotten.Though a lot has been going on with Dravid being out of form i guess he is one of the greatest Indian batsman of modern era(being a test batsman 10k runs in ODIs is not an ordinary feat).I consider him the next best batsman in the Fab 4 of Sachin,Ganguly,Dravid and Laxman.
Laxman also worth the praise.His early contributions were phenomenal against Aus(mostly against Aus).But recently he started torturing other teams as well with his smiling face and his pleasing thoroughly artistic stroke-play.Under pressure he is the man most sought after these days.(That was epitomized in the recent times in mohali and in lanka).As far as Ganguly is concerned i can say a lot about his captaincy than his batsmanship.The seeds sown by these guys have been reaped now.Having said all this Dhoni too is maintaining what was left to him.He is doing pretty well to make the mos of it.But to say MSD is the best captain of all time and all it should take some time.Long way to go.
Amidst this,contributions of Bahjji and Zaheer in the bowling can not be forgotten.Its an overall team effort over the years.The contributions of Ishant,RP singh,Sree,Mishra,Ojha for a brief period is also worth mentioning.Even i feel the same about Aus and its success over years,a considerable part of credit goes to Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh than its portrayed like Ponting is the man who redeemed Aus cricket.He was able to enjoy success only coz of the team abd the culture built by his predecessors.Chris cairns once aptly said"Even my mom(who doesn't know anything about cricket) will win matches for Aus when the team has guys like Mcgrath,Warne,Gilly and Hayden are there".It might look like I'm a Ponting hater.But i can't help it,one has to say what he feels is true.
What ever it is,Whether India is at the top of ICC rankings or not it always has been a challenging side which plays a unique brand of uncompetitive cricket.(It is the only side to have constantly troubled and conquered Aus a few times in the last decade).As opposed to Ian chappell's malign comment -" After the victory India remained No. 1 and Australia at 4, as recorded by the computer. However, computers only tell you about history; they have no concept of heart."- i guess India thoroughly deserves what ever it is enjoying now.Perhaps,Ian chappell has forgotten that same stupid ranking system that said Aus are the best for a decade and pity that he could bot say the above comments by then.
Coming back to Sachin,A lot has been said about him.He had not won matches for India,he perishes under pressure,talks surrounding that he is next only to Don bradman etc etc.But I personnaly have not seen Don Bradman scoring runs for 20 years all over the globe,I have not seen Viv Richards or Clive Llyod treating the best bowlers like Shane warne a club bowler,I have not seen Gavaskar skillfully scoring 500 or 600 odd runs in two world cups ,I have not seen any other batsman of any era who had scored 10k runs in both forms of cricket.And in reality i don't wanna know or i don't wanna see any other player, for a simple reason.You know what????...I HAVE SEEN SACHIN TENDULKAR..THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF BATSMANSHIP IN ONE MAN...Period...
Check this out about the stats that says his redemption. http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/450014.html
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