Sachin Tendulkar: His mind is strong, his desire is fierce & he has it in him to prove that he is still a champion

Sachin Tendulkar got back to the grind of domestic cricket to discover his form with a blazing hundred. He continues to defy odds, age and his critics. The hunger is still there, as his commitment. And that s not good news for England! © Getty Images

Sachin Tendulkar’s sparkling hundred in the Ranji Trophy encounter against the Railways has rekindled the hopes of millions of Indian cricket fans across the globe. Coming after a prolonged struggle, the knock promises to end that horror run as also shut up the trenchant critics baying for his blood. Even at the age of 39, the fire is still burning. The desire to succeed remains unparalleled. But, it’s imperative that we don’t get carried away with this performance, as international cricket is a different ball game. At best, it’s a confidence booster; it remains to be seen if Tendulkar can use the booster injection turn things around at the highest level. That is the big challenge.

Add Cricket Country as a Preferred Source

If one looks at Tendulkar’s scores across all formats since his historic 100th international hundred, one would see that the runs had dried up. The maestro had hit an unparalleled trough. That 100th ton was expected to take considerable weight off his shoulders, but things haven’t panned that way.

In the outing immediately after that knock, he did look good and there were glimpses of the Tendulkar of the old during the innings of 52 against Pakistan. But, somewhere during the Indian Premier League (IPL) he started looking scratchy.

Tendulkar had to retire hurt in the opening game of the IPL and subsequently missed a number of games. On his return, he was nowhere close to the fluency he showed during the knock against Pakistan. There were a few good hits though – which include a 74 against Chennai Super Kings and an unbeaten 58 against the Rajasthan Royals. In fact, if one is to take into account all his outings after the 100^th hundred to his recent hit against the Railways, one would find that he has recorded only five scores above 30 in the 22 innings in the said interval.

Some may argue that majority of those encounters were T20s and that is no parameter to judge a batsman’s overall form. However, one musn’t forget that Tendulkar has defied the age-convention in the past and has performed brilliantly in T20 cricket. In those knocks, he wasn’t able to match the set standards as far as strike-rates are concerned. The slide became increasingly worrisome when New Zealand came around for the Test series – in which he was bowled on three consecutive occasions to set tongues wagging.

During a recent interview Tendulkar admitted that at the age of 39 he doesn’t have much cricket left and he would assess his future series by series. Those remarks were quite numbing, but made perfect sense.

As CricketCountry’s Chief Cricket Writer Arunabha Sengupta wrote in one of his recent articles, the numbers are stacked against Tendulkar as he approaches the age of 40. History would suggest that the few batsmen who played Test cricket on the wrong side of 40 couldn’t match the high standards they set earlier during their respective careers.

Interesting, Tendulkar is at an age when he has reasons to be cheerful, going by historical data. Here is what Arunabha pointed out in the same article, “If we compute age wise averages of all batsmen taken together, the highest figure is found to be achieved by 39 year olds. While it may sound implausible, we must remember that to be still batting for the country after 39, one has to be a Jack Hobbs or a Don Bradman or a Sachin Tendulkar.”

Tendulkar is a true champion who has always emerged stronger after tough times on more than an occasion. Many a times he has been written off – only to silence his critic with spectacular performances with the bat. Jigar Mehta analysed some of Tendulkar’s troughs and found that there was a pattern. Breaks away from the game seem to disturb his rhythm, but he manages to bounce back after a lean patch. While he did go through a 22 innings long struggle, one can see that there was a long break between the IPL and the New Zealand Test series. Keeping that in perspective, Tendulkar has done the right thing by turning up for Mumbai as it has given him good game time and a chance to find his rhythm and feel good.

The most encouraging aspect of the knock was the way he approached his hundred. It took him a small matter of seven balls to move from 74 to 100 – stroking three fours and a six along the way. Some had accused him of slowing down when he approached milestones and it is a sign of intent to prove them wrong. It was almost as if he was playing a T20 game where he had to slog it out.

Batsmen at the age of 39 may have been prolific in general and one mustn’t forget that some of the past greats hadn’t played as much cricket as Tendulkar at a similar stage. For the last 23 years, he has played all the formats with phenomenal consistency. Even when T20 arrived, he adjusted well and proved that class is permanent irrespective of the format. Thus, his 39-year old body has bore the brunt of more wear and tear when compared to those from the yesteryear.

Tendulkar’s intentions are very clear; it’s his body has to support him in his undying quest for runs at the international level.

(Nishad Pai Vaidya is a Correspondent with CricketCountry and an analyst, anchor and voice-over artist for the site’s YouTube Channel. He shot to fame by spotting a wrong replay during IPL4 which resulted in Sachin Tendulkar’s dismissal. His insights on the game have come in for high praise from cerebral former cricketers. He has also participated on live TV talk-shows on cricket. Nishad can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nishad_44)