The past and the future...

The clock turned back in time for Indian cricket yesterday at Baroda.

Sachin Tendulkar batted like the champion he is. Batted like he always batted in the past. Batted like a tiger going after his prey.

And then Saurav Ganguly became the captain of the team, albeit for a brief passage of play. Rahul Dravid started cramping up in the field. So he decided to go off to get some quick treatment. His deputy, Sachin Tendulkar, had not taken the field after the tiring batting display. And so, the baton fell in Saurav Ganguly's lap.

Amid the chaos that is a one day game in India, few people noticed this. The most successful (and the best ever) captain in Indian cricket history took reins of 'his boys'. There were players on the field who were indeed little boys in terms of cricketing experience when the skipper got them into the team, fought for them and stood behind them. Players like Agarkar, Harbhajan, Zaheer, Dhoni, Yuvraj and Pathan are currently in the Indian team probably because their skipper fought for them to be included in the team, and then stood behind them when they were in a low. Some people watching the game and probably some even playing it, would have glanced at the past.

But then came the message from the Indian team management. Sachin Tendulkar came scurrying out to the field to take over the charge from the former skipper. With him came the message, 'Stop looking at the past, let's focus on the future'.

Where does Sachin bat in the world cup?

In the final ODI of the series against West Indies, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar played one of his best knocks in recent memory. This batting display was one of the 2 best knocks he has played since the 2003 world cup in South Africa (the other one being his 90-odd in the 3rd ODI in Pakistan in early 2006).

But even as Indian cricket fans go wild and the critics get off the little master's back for a while, Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell have a decision to make.

In what position does Sachin bat in the world cup?

Let's look at the 2 sides of the story to understand the conundrum...

• The player himself wants to open. Sachin has in the past has openly expressed his desire to always open in ODI games.
• His record shows how successful he has been. There hasn't been a better ODI opener in the history of Indian cricket, and maybe world cricket.
• His partnership with Saurav Ganguly is the most successful opening partnership over a long period of time.
• He, more than anyone else, has the ability to go after a McGrath or a Pollock at the top of the order when the situation demands it.
• With all due respect to Uthappa, the West Indian new ball bowlers are amongst the weakest in the world. We cannot go by the results of this series to make this decision.

So why the hell are we even thinking about asking him to drop down?

• The innings he played in the ODI at Baroda against the West Indies was one of the best we have seen from an Indian batsman in the middle order. It was almost an 'Australian' batting display. (Digressing from the main topic...What is an 'Australian' batting display? The batter is always on the lookout for runs. Good balls go for ones, a ones going to a weak fielder become twos, bad balls are ruthlessly dispatched to the boundary. And before the bowling team realizes, the batter is in his 40s.)
• Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh can make a lethal batting partnership in the middle overs. Yuvraj also capable of playing a similar kind of a game.
• Every team's bowling weaklink is going to bowl between overs 20 and 40 in the world cup. That is the time to up the ante. We are talking about bowlers like Hall, Afridi, Symonds, Watson. Letting these bowlers go for less than 50 runs in 10 overs will spell doom for the batting team.

So, what does Rahul Dravid do?

The answer should be simple. It is in just 1 word...'Flexibility'. Sachin bats at the top usually, but when the situation demands it, he comes down in the middle.

Unfortunately that does not come very easily to Indian cricket. The line we keep hearing from the old pros in the commentary boxes is 'Every member of the team should know what his role is'. The way the game is played now, I don't think we can have players who have just 1 role to play. A player should be able to open and bat down the order. An opener should be able to bat out the new ball and also go after it. A spinner should be able to bowl in the middle overs and also within the powerplays. A seamer should be equally comfortable taking the new ball and coming first change.

So what will Dravid do? We will get our answer soon enough.

Sachin Ala Re!

Yesss......and he is back with a bang. It was one of the best innings by him in recent times. When he came to bat, the platform was beautifully set by Ganguly and Dravid, though Dravid was finding it little hard to nudge ball around for quick runs. But, Tendulkar seemed to be in totally different mood. He was running hard for ones, twos and also managed to get that odd boundary. He took on weak bowlers and weak fielders. On one occasion, Chanderpaul was awed when Tendulkar ran for second after he made an underarm throw to the keeper. It was an intelligent and beautifully pasted innings. He decided to take second fiddle when Dhoni walked onto the field, but also took odd risk. That gave India 130-odd runs in last 13 overs. It was wonderful to watch him bat today which produced his second fastest hundred( 76 balls 100 ). That six of Samuels was one of the big hits of the match.
He also showed one of the traits which makes him great....he makes his bat do all the talking. That should shun the critics.