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There are often comparisons of Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar with batters of modern era. However, several experts feel that Sachin is the best batsman to have ever played the game considering the number of great and fearsome bowlers he had to face and the kind of circumstances he had to go through during his time.
No equal opportunity for batsman and bowlers
Modern batters are playing in an era where cricket has become a batsman’s game and not one where there is equal opportunity for batsman and bowlers. The grounds are shorter, the pitches are flatter and the sports equipment are top class. The larger need to attract people to the ground and make them watch on TV has created a context that has taken the sheen out of the game.
Against fierce bowlers
Moreover, when Sachin entered the scene, the most dominant teams were West Indies, Australia and Pakistan and the fierce and trickey bowlers were Waqar Younis, Wasim Akram, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Brett Lee and Muttiah Muralitharan etc
Overall record
A batsman needs to be judged by his overall record and his record against the best team in that generation. Tendulkar scored 3630 in 39 matches against Australia, the most dominant side of his generation, at an average of 55 which is higher than his Test average of 53.78 with 11 hundreds and 16 fifties.
Sachin, concluding his illustrious career with 18,426 runs in ODIs and 15,921 runs in Tests, achieved his lifelong ambition of lifting the World Cup trophy in 2011, under MS Dhoni’s captaincy. Among his remarkable feats, Sachin notched up 100 international centuries, with 51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs.
Bowlers fear Sachin
There were several outstanding players like Lara, Ponting, Dravid, Kallis, Sangakkara and Kohli and they all had great averages plus consistency. One of the defining questions would be — who did bowlers fear the most among these great players? There were only one batsman who bowlers feared the most and he is Sachin.
Sachin was one of the youngest to start his career and one of the oldest to retire. Tendulkar scored a 100 when he was just 17 and scored a 200 when he was 38. He has the highest runs in tests and ODIs.
Disappointing DRS & great ambassador of cricket
Apart from his illustrious career and brilliant records, Sachin was also a great ambassador of the gentleman’s game. As per the statisticians of the game, with no DRS available those days, the Master Blaster was wrongly given out by umpires around 39 times in his career.
As a result, Sachin missed many centuries and India lost many matches. Still, Sachin never uttered a single word against the umpires, rather smiled and left the ground calmly. This is the reason why fans and experts consider him as the ‘Real Gentleman’ of the gentleman’s game (cricket).
In hindsight, several fans think that had Sachin not given out wrongly so many times in his career, he would have probably scored an incredible 150 centuries in his brilliant career.
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How to fight fire with fire...
Tendulkar gave character, inspiration and confidence to the future generation. He taught how to fight fire with fire and his ‘desert storm’ in Sharjah in 1998 made every Indian stand with pride. When a match started, every Indian believed that they can win. It is this confidence that Tendulkar injected into the fibre of not just the cricket team but also to the whole nation. He backed up his consistency on the field with a dignified conduct outside the field.
