Figures above have brought joyous occasions for Indian cricket fans, as they represent two of the most prolific run scorers and all time great batsmen the game has seen. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid are undoubtedly two of the best cricket players of our generation & we are nothing less than privileged to watch them playing. Known as ‘Little Master’ & ‘The Wall’ respectively, both are 38+ and yet going strong. The fans of Sachin Tendulkar have gone even beyond that declaring him the ‘God of Cricket’. While Tendulkar has always been in the limelight of media due to his sky touching feats, Dravid has been found to follow him closely like a silent stallion more often than not. Much has been talked & written about their impeccable batting styles, trademark shots and cricketing ethics. Thus, here is just a view on the journey of both cricketing legends from an eye of a cricket fan (not an analyst) and let us find out that how they have still remained unconquered amidst of all odds.
Sachin Tendulkar | Rahul Dravid |
His journey towards becoming the iconic cricketer began at the tender age of 14 soon after scoring 326 not out in a partnership worth of 664 runs with his schoolmate Vinod Kambli. In the following year, he was representing India while playing against Pakistan at their home turf in a test where he made a blood spilled debut and yet scored a half century. His first international century came very soon and he scored that against England at Old Trafford. The rest is a well known epic as he is about to be the first centurion of International centuries along with having highest runs in both the formats of game. He dominated the world cricket through his gifted and thoughtfully improved batting for the following one and half decade without much trouble. It is important to remember that this was also an era of lethal pace attack from South Africa, Australia, Wes Indies and Pakistan. In the mean time the only factor that had affected his batting performance seemed to be the burden of captaincy during 1996 - 1998 & 1999 respectively. Perhaps the first real criticism he received for his batting was the changed approach and rate to score runs after the back injury that threatened to put full stop on his career. Though, he rightly defended himself from our unreasonable expectations by reminding us that he was not 20 anymore and changed approach was required to maintain his body cricket worthy as long as possible & we know the result now. However, this was not the end of troubles for him as the injury in the form of tennis elbow haunted him again and kept him out of cricket during significantly important tournaments. It was after that phase when all started to speculate about his retirement. Although, destiny had other plans and he entered another golden phase of his career in 2007-08 season which is still continuing majorly making new records and peaks which younger generations will have to climb to achieve the stature Tendulkar has gained for himself. In an honest opinion, not even a single bowler who has bowled against him would say ‘it just felt like bowling to others’. Thus, it would not be an exaggeration to say that ‘it will be impossible to fill in the shoes of Sachin Tendulkar’. | Dravid had the hard way to gain his place into national side as he paved his way into Indian team only after 5 years of playing first class cricket. His first outing in ODI against Sri Lanka had gone unnoticed as he managed just 3 runs in that Indian win. However, he made his test debut at the ‘Mecca of Cricket’ Lord’s and went on to make 95 runs which were sidelined by the century of another debutant Sourav Ganguly. Even though his suitability for the ODIs remained under the scanner for number of initial years, his place in the test side was cemented by his excellent temperament and classic batting style. He along with Tendulkar, Ganguly & Laxman formed the ‘Fantastic Four’ of Indian middle order in the test arena for more than a decade. In addition, surprising for an Indian batsman, he averages more while playing overseas than at home. With the passage of time he not only molded his batting style to suit the shorter format of the game but also excelled by becoming the third highest scorer for India. His flexibility to bat at any number along with ability to keep wickets proved very handy for team India until Dhoni was handed over the wicket keeping responsibility on permanent basis. More importantly, carrying the baton when others are already puffed and clueless has remained the highlight of his career, earning him his famous nick name. Even though he retired from ODIs just couple of months back with a positive note, his career in the format was virtually ended in 2007. It was then when everyone thought the sun of Dravid’s career is about set as the element of old Dravid seemed to be missing which took the toll on his batting by deteriorating performances. But that’s when he exhibited the phoenix trait and scored back to back centuries against Sri Lanka followed by another one versus Bangladesh in 2009-10. He was the lone warrior & centurion for Indian team when other batsmen failed make any impact on English bowlers in the nightmarish tour of England earlier this year. Certainly, he is the perfect role model for budding cricketers by showing true virtues of sportsman and serves as the best example for the sport called ‘Gentleman’s game’. |
Despite of such great skills, achievements and status neither of two have been indulged in controversies that may put their prestige and dignity at stake. Most importantly, both of them have successfully managed to keep their personal and professional life separate through strong work ethics. From my personal experience, I can surely say that even though having such a huge fan following, Tendulkar is the most modest and polite to all his fans compared to his colleagues. On the other hand, Dravid seems to be afraid of crowds and tries to keep himself away from all the hype and attention.
However, as a fan of both these cricketing legends, at times I feel that the career parallel to Tendulkar’s along with his glittering stature & media galore around him have done injustice in appreciating Dravid’s services to Indian cricket. At number of occasions, his achievements had either overshadowed by other teammate’s performance in the same game or had been recognized few days after the game. Though the contributions of Dravid are praised by them, even the commentators don’t go ecstatic on his achievements. Although, the humble Rahul Dravid has seems to be absorbed the famous lesson from ‘Bhagvad Gita’ very well and thus never bothered about it and always kept himself focused on just what he is meant to do, as this has been a part and parcel of his cricketing career from his first international test match appearance at Lord’s. It may be my over expectation, but as a fan, the only thing that bothers me Tendulkar’s batting is- I am always more afraid than reluctant to leave my seat while he is at the crease thinking what if he gets out while I am not watching. Oppositely, I could prepare my own snacks in the kitchen while Dravid is batting as I know he would surely be there when I go back!
I can remember only couple of incidents when anxiety of fans had turned into anger for Tendulkar. The first one was the infamous ‘booing incident’ at Wankhede, his home ground and the other would be the laborious 35th test hundred to surpass Gavaskar’s record at Firozeshah Kotla. Apart from these incidents Tendulkar always had the support from his fans, teammates and importantly from the management during all the ups and downs he faced as a cricketer. Contrarily, Dravid had to fight and earn his place into the team, especially, during the early few years of his career as he was considered slow and thus unfit for the shorter version of the game. After debacle of 2007 Caribbean world cup under his captaincy, he resigned as a captain and subsequently also got axed from the ODI side. But the worst was yet to follow as he was called up to play again after 22 months in response to short pitch woes of strong Indian batting line up and surprisingly got disposed in less than a month. This happened to someone who has scored 10,000+ runs in the same format. It was just his disciplined approach and work ethics that he did not utter a single word out of anguish and took it all with wholeheartedness. And that’s why I believe he is rather unbeaten at 13,000…
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