Can the Indians make the best of Tendulkar's absence?
The selectors sprang a surprise in Mumbai on Monday by announcing that Sachin Tendulkar would skip the better part of this month's triangular series in Sri Lanka
Sankhya Krishnan
10-Jul-2001
The selectors sprang a surprise in Mumbai on Monday by announcing that
Sachin Tendulkar would skip the better part of this month's triangular
series in Sri Lanka. A hitherto undisclosed foot injury he sustained
in the Coca-Cola Cup final on Saturday leaves the Indian team in the
piquant situation of having to cope without their best player, sole
credible matchwinner and inspirational figure for his colleagues.
Perhaps the rest of the players have even forgotten what it feels like
to be denied Tendulkar's reassuring presence since it's the first such
occurence in 50 ODIs.
In his 12-year-old international career, Tendulkar has missed a fair
share of games. After making his debut against Pakistan in Gujranwala
in December 1989, Tendulkar flitted in and out of the side briefly,
losing out on four ODIs in all. But starting from the Australasia Cup in
Sharjah in April 1990, he made 185 straight appearances until May 1998,
which remains the ODI record for most matches played in succession.
The sequence was broken with the first encounter of the Coca-Cola Cup
triangular in India, also involving minnows Bangladesh and Kenya, and
since then he's spent a total of 27 games on the sidelines.
That includes four matches of the Sahara Cup in 1998 which
synchronised with the Commonwealth Games. India made a gigantic cockup by scattering their first XI into different parties. In the event,
both teams were soundly thrashed. Tendulkar was jetsetted almost
halfway across the world from Kuala Lumpur to Toronto for the last
game but his 77 could not prevent India crashing to a 1-4 defeat.
Tendulkar also bypassed four full competitions either side of the 1999
World Cup due to a chronic back injury that first erupted during his
magnificent 136 in the doomed run chase against Pakistan at Chennai.
India won only one of those tournaments, the DMC Cup against West
Indies in Toronto under Sourav Ganguly, and were a beaten finalist in
the other three. Going purely by figures, Tendulkar's loss hasn't made
a marked difference to India's success rate: of these 27 games, India
have won 13 and lost 14. But psychologically it raises the pressure on
each of the other batsmen which can make them do strange things
sometimes. Like during the World Cup clash against Zimbabwe at Grace
Road, when they contrived to make a hash of the run chase after the
little fella had to fly home in the wake of his father's death.
Now isn't that precisely the spirit of the rotation policy: to rest a
player in order to test the calibre of his replacement as well as of
his colleagues who have often been pampered by his presence? I think
rotation should not be attempted when it so obviously affects the
winningness of the team. Especially now when the victory habit is
still so elusive for the Indians because the longer the drought
prolongs, the more it saps player morale and the more difficult it
becomes to raise it again.
But now that Tendulkar's absence is forced upon by injury, the team -
while having to live with the consequences - can still squeeze some
advantage from the situation. Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS
Laxman all will be keenly watched for any symptoms of putting their
hands up and showing the fervour to take the load upon themselves.
Amay Khurasia, Tendulkar's nominated replacement, has been
resurrected from oblivion after being in the World Cup squad just two
years ago and goes on trial as Ganguly's opening partner. One only
hopes he doesn't meet the same fate as Gagan Khoda who filled in for
Tendulkar in the Coca-Cola Cup in 1998. Khoda played two games, doing
rather well with scores of 26 and 89, but has never been considered
since.