Sachin Tendulkar: Great in Tests, greatest in ODIs
By K Shriniwas Rao, TNN
Dec 24, 2012
MUMBAI: Time stood frozen on Sunday as Sachin Tendulkar, a behemoth of one-day cricket batting, decided to abruptly call it a day. In his ODI avatar, Tendulkar leaves behind not just the memories of his strokeplay but the riveting story of a marketing phenomenon that made him India's biggest brand.
Profile: Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar | In Pics: Sachin's one-day journey
While he always remained the undisputed king of one-day cricket, the question lingers if he managed to conquer Test cricket in an equally fascinating way.
Statistics alone may never tell the real story. Tendulkar has played 463 ODIs with 234 resulting in India victories and 33 of his 49 hundreds, including the world-record unbeaten 200, coming in a winning cause. His ODI average stands at 44.83 and the winning average at 56.63. What makes Tendulkar's ODI stint more special is also the 154 wickets against his name, with 97 coming in matches India won.
Ricky Ponting, Sanath Jayasuriya, Inzamam-ul Haq, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid - five of the greatest ODI batsmen of Tendulkar's generation - do not match up to the tally.
In Test cricket, Tendulkar averages a whopping 54.32 in 194 matches with the win/draw average at a daunting 64.92 in 66 games. The 51 Test centuries are only an icing on the cake. Off those 51, 40 have either resulted in India's victory or a draw.
Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Brian Lara - the five greatest Test batsmen - again do not match up to these figures.
As a one-day cricketer, he's been part of a World Cup winning team while as a Test cricketer, he played a crucial role in India going on to become the world's top-ranked team. While Tendulkar continues to play Test cricket, numbers make it impossible to suggest which format he ruled more. A Test batsman is gauged by his run-making ability in different conditions, against different opposition. On that count, 29 of Tendulkar's 51 Test centuries have come in away matches, with some of the best coming at the WACA, Old Trafford, SCG, the Basin Reserve, Galle and so on.
In one-day cricket, the accolades are normally reserved for big-match entertainers, and once again there is nobody bigger than Tendulkar. He took India to the semifinals of the 1996 World Cup and batted on a wicket that looked like a featherbed till he got out. He scored a century in the 1999 World Cup immediately after his father's untimely funeral. The nerveless 98 against Pakistan at Centurion in the 2003 World Cup too stands out. Finally, winning the coveted trophy in 2011 makes it complete.
For many, favourite Tendulkar moments go beyond the World Cup, be it the 84 in Auckland or the Desert Storm in 1998 or the double century in Gwalior.
To say that he was better in one format than the other can only be an anomaly for those looking to make assumptions.
Perhaps the fact that he still doesn't have a triple hundred in Tests places him a notch lesser than some other legends. Possibly, compared to Dravid, Tendulkar's double hundreds haven't come in the most demanding conditions either. However, for those looking beyond numbers, the sight of Tendulkar batting has always been divine.
One-day cricket, however, has one strong Tendulkar connection. His rise as a ODI batsman, the advent of cable TV and introduction of coloured clothing all happened almost at the same time. The manner in which he went on from there to become India's biggest brand, the darling of scores of parents who wanted their children to be like him, and the humility with which he went about his job perhaps makes him the most complete cricketer ever.
