Sunil Rajguru
Sachin Tendulkar’s stumps being uprooted by James Anderson in the Nagpur Test signified his last international innings of the year. It was also symbolic of the way 2012 has gone for the batting great.
Sachin made a paltry 2 runs off 25 balls in a pitch where it was difficult to get a batsman out if he went into defensive mode. Sachin watched helplessly as his side was beaten in a Test series at home for the first time in 8 years.
Ironically, it was in Nagpur in 2004 that saw Australia take an unbeatable 2-0 lead in that series. That time too Sachin was helpless as he scored 2 and 8 runs in both innings of the Test.
2012 has been the batting great’s worst year ever in international cricket. There is no doubt about it anymore. This was an absolute “annus horribilis” and he had very little to cheer about in terms of pure performance and contribution to Team India’s victories.
Image: Sachin Tendulkar is dismissed for the ninth time in Tests by James Anderson in the final Test at Nagpur
From the point of view of celebration, there was the Mahashatak or the 100th international 100, but that was quite an artificial record built around a lot of media hype. It also came pretty late, after a lot of struggle.
For one year Sachin chased the elusive Mahashatak tentatively, but after he got it, he seemed to become even more tentative.
That Mahashatak happened to be the only century that Sachin scored in the year. And that was sullied by the fact that it came in a losing cause to a lowly-ranked team like Bangladesh, thanks to which we were kicked out of the Asia Cup.
While many players from both teams went at a strike rate greater than 100%, Sachin’s slow 114 off 147 balls meant that India couldn’t set Bangladesh a 300+ target, which was par for the course.
Image: Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar reacts after scoring his hundred century during the one day international (ODI) Asia Cup cricket match between India and Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on March 16, 2012. India's Sachin Tendulkar became the first batsman in history to score 100 international centuries, adding another milestone in his record-breaking career.
The Test scene was even more dismal. He had no centuries and made only two Test fifties and co-incidentally, India lost both those matches. At Eden Gardens, Sachin’s 76 off 155 balls with England looked scrappy and it seemed like a huge effort for the batting maestro. With that kind of determination, application and deadness of the pitch, a younger Tendulkar would have probably got a double ton.
If one combines the yearly averages of his combined Tests and ODIs in the year, then this is the first time since 1989 that his average is in the lowly twenties.
While batsmen struggle against fast pitches as they age, what is more worrying has been Sachin’s decline in home Tests. If 2011 was bad, then 2012 was worse. In 9 matches, Sachin scored just 357 runs at an average of 23.8
When one looks at performance of the entire team for 2012, then Sachin is the seventh highest Indian scorer in Tests in terms of total runs scored and fifth in ODIs!
For the England series, he is again the seventh highest Indian batsmen in terms of total runs, a new low for the batting great.
Image: Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar (L) is trapped LBW by Australian fast bowler Ryan Harris (R)on day 1 of the third cricket Test match against Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series at the WACA ground in Perth on January 13, 2012.
Sachin will turn 40 next year. He now faces the best pace attacks in the world in Tests, first in the form of Australia at home and then a much tougher South Africa in South Africa. Is he up to it? He certainly doesn’t appear to be so. The sight of Sachin getting totally beaten and clean bowled in a Test match is becoming a regular feature.
But there is a distinct possibility that Sachin will definitely last that long for the simple reason that most of the country will want him to complete 200 Tests. For Indians, records are far more important than performance and victories.
In ODIs, he is at 49 centuries, 96 half-centuries, 195 sixes, 463 matches and 18426 runs. Would he like to round off all those numbers before he calls it a day?
Most of the Indian Test team needs to be phased out and we probably require a new coach and captain too, but somehow the BCCI has been unwilling to make changes. Come 0-4 or 0-8 or even a rare home series defeat in Tests, it seems business as usual for the BCCI.
Sachin now finds himself in a situation where even a century will not be able to wipe out almost two years of low performance, especially by the standards that Sachin has set for himself.
Image: Sachin Tendulkar gestures after being bowled out by New Zealand bowler Tim Southee during the fourth day of the second Test match between India and New Zealand at The M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on September 3, 2012
Once Sachin had declared that it is selfish to quit when on the top.
Well he is at rock bottom right now. By that logic, the time has come for him to call it a day.
Either that or the selectors will have to politely tell him that his time is up. But with former selector Mohinder Amarnath’s recent revelations that nothing major can be done without the approval of the BCCI head honchos, things may continue to drift like this.
Sachin has delivered too many records and is one of the richest cricketers in the world and is too precious for the sponsors.
One gets an idea of how powerless the selectors will be.
Looks like that is a call that only BCCI President N Srinivasan can make now!
Image: Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar gestures in the nets during a training session at the Rajiv Gandhi International cricket stadium in Hyderabad on August 19, 2012. New Zealand and India are scheduled to play a two-match Test series and two Twenty20 matches.
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