VIEW 1
Just focus on Test cricket
During the rain-hit Bangalore one-dayer the Indian batting line-up put on a power-packed display. The only exception was Sachin Tendulkar. Playing his first game of the ongoing India-England series, he scored 11. While there’s every reason to believe that Tendulkar will better this score in the remaining games, it’s time to ask whether he should be playing ODIs at all.
A few months shy of 36,Tendulkar’s body is just not up to the rigours of the packed international schedule. Over the past few seasons, he has missed Tests and ODIs because of injury, something that was unthinkable when he was younger. The last ODI that he played was in March missing a triangular tournament, the Asia Cup, and a one-day series against Sri Lanka this year. But the Indian one-day team hasn’t really missed Tendulkar. It reached the finals of the Asia Cup, beat the strong Sri Lankan team in Sri Lanka and crushed England in the first three ODIs.
The ODI team under M S Dhoni is an explosive unit. And unlike earlier Indian teams it is an exceptional fielding side. One of the reasons for this is the team’s youth. All the players in the team are in their twenties with the exception of Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan, both of who turned 30 last month. So why disturb this winning combination by playing Tendulkar?
The current ODI squad should be the team that will play the 2011 World Cup. It’s difficult to imagine Tendulkar maintaining peak form and fitness in both the longer and shorter forms of the game till then. It would be much better for Indian cricket if he focuses on Test cricket where Team India has just lost two stalwarts in Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly. Tendulkar is needed in the Test squad not just as a batsman but also to see through a difficult transition process.
If he sticks to playing Tests, Tendulkar would in all likelihood be able to stretch his playing career. That would be a bonus not only for Indian cricket but also for millions of cricket fans.
VIEW 2
Sachin should play on
The spotlight was on Sachin Tendulkar when he walked in to open the Indian innings. It did not stay on him for long. An ungainly 11 runs later, he was back in the pavilion. At a time when M S Dhoni’s brave young gladiators are establishing their authority, this became reason enough for suggestions that he should leave the limited overs shenanigans to the youngsters and prolong his career at the pinnacle of the sport in Test cricket. They are wrong.
Four hundred eighteen oneday matches, 16,372 runs at an average of over 44, 42 centuries and 89 half centuries. The statistics bear repeating. A man cannot reach such heights without knowing every aspect of his game. There can be no better judge of his fitness and future in the one-day game than Tendulkar himself. The way he plays his cricket shows that he is no egotist. He will not cling on when he feels that he is no longer up for it or that it is detrimental to the team. The game reveals a man’s character and his has withstood the sternest examinations.
Suggestions that his latest outing proves otherwise are premature. Sourav Ganguly might have made it his USP but the Little Master is no less adept at proving naysayers wrong. Let it not be forgotten that in the last one-day series he played against Australia in 2007-08, he was the highest run scorer from the Indian side. Of late, his game has seen a rejuvenation of sorts. He has emerged from the cocoon of cautious strokeplay he had built around himself in the middle of the decade to play with something approaching his old joie de vivre. It is heartening to the team and disheartening for opponents.
For two decades he has been at the top of the game, one of its most feared exponents. His presence is talismanic, not just for the fans watching him but for his teammates. The day that it is no longer so, he will choose to step down. Until that day, he must be left alone.
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