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.