Tendulkar 'incomparable'
Sachin Tendulkar may have been a great batsman in Tests, but in one-dayers, he is incomparable, writes Dileep Premachandran in Wisden India
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Sachin Tendulkar may have been a great batsman in Tests, but in one-dayers, he is incomparable, writes Dileep Premachandran in Wisden India. Regardless of the statistics, though, he would be regarded as special for the way he constantly reinvented himself all through his career.
There is Tendulkar, daylight, and then some more daylight. Of those still playing the game today, Chris Gayle tops the hundreds chart with 20. Tendulkar finished with 49, despite his focus solely being on World Cup glory since January 2010. Either side of those nine World Cup matches in 2011, he played just 14 times in three years. When discussing Tendulkar the one-day batsman, the numbers have little meaning. They just intimidate and overwhelm.
G Rajaraman, in DNA, also mentions about the irrelevance of his numbers, and writes that his greatness lay in his ability to shoulder the expectations of a nation.
There really is no need to look at either his statistics or the countless records that he owns in limited-over cricket to justify his place above everyone else in the world of limited-over cricket. For someone to remain seemingly unaffected by the adulation and criticism for close to two decades and focus on his performance while raising the bar for his teammates is a super human effort indeed.
In the one-day format, his ability to combine orthodoxy and innovation marked him out as exceptional, writes Suresh Menon, also in DNA: "He could slash over third man with panache or whip the ball from outside the off stump past mid-on with power. He could be beaten and still recover to hit a boundary. But above all, he could frustrate the best bowlers by playing with a straight bat and a sense of mischief."
In the Indian Express, former India captain Ajit Wadekar talks to Shamik Chakrabarty about the circumstances which brought Tendulkar to start opening the innings for India, and its significance. Wadekar, who was the manager of the Indian team at the time, trusted him to open in a one-dayer in New Zealand in the absence of the injured Navjot Sidhu.
I think it was one of my best decisions as a cricket manager to send him to open the innings. Sachin's talent and self confidence allowed me to take such a decision. He was quite confident that he would be successful, batting up the order. And the god-gifted talent that he is, he could easily change his game accordingly.
Aditya Iyer, also in the Indian Express, notes how Tendulkar's innings against Australia in Sharjah symbolised the way Indians watched their cricket: Tendulkar's triumph was all that mattered.
Former Pakistan fast bowlers Waqar Younis and Wasim recount Tendulkar's 2003 World Cup innings in Centurion in the Mumbai Mirror, on a day he had led them to a memorable win against Pakistan.