The Hindu : Sport : Tendulkar needs to spend more time in the middle

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004

Sport

Sport

Tendulkar needs to spend more time in the middle

By S. Dinakar

WHAT A MESS: Sachin Tendulkar, going through a very lean run by his standards, looks back to see a Hall delivery re-arranging the stumps in Kanpur on Tuesday. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

KANPUR, NOV. 23. In the slippery realm of sport, form is never a sovereign commodity. This game of fluctuating fortunes can be unsparing, even if the protagonist is one Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. In this domain, nothing really is for certain.

The dreaded sound of the ball crashing into the timber, the middle stump being knocked out of the ground, and then the lonely walk back — the little big man is a touch short of runs these days.

Tendulkar spent an uncertain 23 minutes at the crease at the Green Park on Tuesday, striving to rediscover his timing, almost nicking a rare away seaming delivery from Mkhaya Ntini, before being consumed by an Andrew Hall off-cutter. It was all over with the maestro contributing just three.

And this is a cricketer on the threshold of equalling Sunil Gavaskar's record 34 Test hundreds, someone who has the magic figure of 10,000 Test runs well within his sights, and has earned the right to be batched with the greatest.

In his last eight Test knocks, he averages just 10.5, with 55 of the 84 runs scored during the period, arriving in a single effort against the Australians in Mumbai. Match-winning as that cameo at the Wankhede Stadium certainly was, Tendulkar has a disturbing string of seven single digit returns in these eight stints.

Disturbing

He indeed is in the middle of his otherwise illustrious career's worst patch. There is far too much quality in Tendulkar's batsmanship for him to remain in the background for long, however, the present run of scores must be bothering the proud cricketer. He needs to spend more time in the middle and work his way back to top gear.

A glimpse at Tendulkar's performances from India's tour of Australia last season will prove interesting. He had an indifferent series Down Under till the last Test in Sydney, with a 44 in Melbourne, the third Test, being his highest score. He ended that sequence at the SCG, which interestingly was India's first Test of 2004, with a mammoth unbeaten 241, and followed that up with an unconquered 194 in the opening Test against Pakistan at Multan.

Then Tendulkar walked into a much leaner phase. Ironically, his monumental three-figure knocks in Sydney and Multan have meant that Tendulkar still averages a whopping 72.38 this year (579 runs in seven Tests), but scratch the surface and you will find that consistency, normally his hallmark, has been lacking in his recent displays.

To be fair to Tendulkar, he has been unlucky too, at the receiving end of some lethal deliveries — the short pitched thunderbolt from Shoaib Akhtar that removed him in Rawalpindi was a beast of a ball — and then being hampered by a tennis elbow injury just when he was striving to gain momentum at the beginning of a fresh season.

Daunting hurdle

To enter into a duel against the formidable Australian attack without any match practice in the third Test on a lively Nagpur pitch — Tendulkar missed the first two Tests — was a huge ask and the Mumbai batsman, appearing a touch rusty, could not surmount a daunting hurdle.

Says former Indian batting star Mohinder Amarnath: "Technically, there is nothing wrong with his batting. But he is a better player on wickets with more pace and bounce, which suit his style. This phase will pass soon. With Tendulkar the expectations are so high. He did play that fine innings in Mumbai without much practice."

The chief of the South African selection panel Omar Henry said, "Sooner than later he should come good. He is such a quality player. Form is temporary, class is permanent."

During his significant innings in Sydney and Multan, the 31-year-old batsman appeared to have opted for solidity over flair, cutting out the risks square off the surface, and concentrating on strokes in front of the wicket. Here was a man prepared to wait and conquer rather than storm into the bowling with a barrage of strokes.

Peering back, Tendulkar losing out the race to regain fitness ahead of the first Test against the Aussies, was a major factor in the situation he finds himself now. He thus, with a marginally lighter bat that was a legacy of his tennis elbow injury, could not really settle into his trademark batting rhythm. But then, the journey back to light can sometimes be only a step away, and the chances are that Tendulkar will find his way back from the shadows.

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