Sachin Tendulkar: Does the picture need a caption at all?
The Indian cricket team starts a long season now with a game against New Zealand in the Compaq Cup in Colombo on Friday. And while it will begin without either of the familiar pair of the left-handed Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag walking out to start its innings, there is no real reason to panic.
Sehwag’s recovering from a shoulder surgery while Gambhir aggravated a groin injury at nets and is winging his way back home. A certain Sachin Tendulkar returns to one-day internationals after missing the tour of the West Indies in June-July and will open the innings with Dinesh Karthik, who did duty in the four-game series in the Caribbean.
Tendulkar’s overall career has been too glittering to recount here and it will suffice to say that he has opened the innings in each of the last 41 ODI games he has played and has scored 1837 runs at 47.10 runs an innings – higher than his career average. And, because we tend to forget, the New Zealand attack was savaged for 163 runs in his last knock.
Of course, thanks to the return of pace duo Daryl Tuffey and Shane Bond from the ICL fold, the New Zealand attack can be more competitive than when it hosted India in March. With the quick bowlers hitting the right areas on the sluggish Premadasa Stadium track in the opening game, scoring freely was not an option for the batsmen either. Read more »
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