Tendulkar, the perfect batsman
Sachin Tendulkar is one short of his 100th international ton Vic Marks in the Observer writes that Lord's would be the perfect venue for the record
Akhila Ranganna
25-Feb-2013
Sachin Tendulkar is one short of his 100th international ton Vic Marks in the Observer writes that Lord's would be the perfect venue for the record. If not Mumbai, then Lord's is the place for that 100th century, to set the record right before he even contemplates retirement and further beatification.
Indeed there is a script for this week that even the odd Bollywood writer might find a little too far-fetched. Sachin Tendulkar comes to Lord's, the home of cricket, to play in the 2000th Test of all time. It is probably his last chance to appear in a Test on the sacred ground, where his highest score up to now has been a bewilderingly paltry 37. On the boards in the Lord's dressing rooms there is no mention of Tendulkar. In the past the engravers have not even double-checked the spelling of his name.
In his column in the Mail on Sunday James Anderson writes that with everyone talking about the milestone and the fact that Tendulkar has never made a hundred at Lord’s, the hype might possibly have a detrimental effect on their side as a whole.
Where do you bowl at Sachin to try to get him out? There aren’t many places, to be honest. But at Lord’s this week, we will aim to starve India’s master batsman of runs and hope we hang in long enough for him to make a mistake.
If you sat down with a pen and paper to draw the perfect batsman, you would sketch out Tendulkar’s profile, writes Michael Vaughan in the Sunday Telegraph.
Back to the Observer and former India wicketkeeper Kiran More looks back to India's tour of England in 1990, which was also Tendulkar's first tour of the country and says there was never a time one would have thought Tendulkar was a 17-year-old new to international cricket.
Akhila Ranganna is assistant editor (Audio) at ESPNcricinfo