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But the reason why we need to talk about him so much is that given the current form of the Indian T20 team and their performance in the World T20, it desperately needs a player of his stature in the team or himself. His performances in the Indian Premier League and in the recently concluded test series before the IPL against South Africa have been commendable. Age has never been a barrier for him. His variety of shots and the grace he had in the shots he played was a treat to watch for all the viewers. He has left no scope for innovation in this department. A very interesting observation was made during the match between Sri Lanka and India. The commentators said that during the entire season of IPL 3, Sachin was the highest run getter and majority of the runs came in boundaries which indicate that he does not believe in much of lofting the ball in the air as one tends to make mistakes when he is out of form. But when one deals with boundaries at least the risk element is lessened. As I said earlier, the more we talk about him the more speechless one gets!

When you talk about him as a bowler, he proves to be a very effective off break cum leg break bowler and has chipped in with wickets whenever required. He also has a five wicket haul to his name in the ODIs also which shows his commitment towards the game and the team that he play. His performances as a slip fielder during the powerplay overs and in the covers during the rest have been brilliant.


It is the need of the hour that the current Indian T20 team which has put up a dismal performance at the World T20 in the West Indies, needs someone of his stature to come to the rescue. A one man show is not what we are talking about, his experience as a batsman, a bowler and more importantly a fielder would have been of great use to the team. The psychological effect that the team will have is what I am talking about. And there is no justification required for his inclusion in the team. When Sachin refused to play for the World T20 most of the players were disappointed. It was because they themselves wanted him to play and be the backbone of the team.

As former Australian cricketer Dean Jones rightly mentioned on a news channel, “If he (Sachin) can play for 45 days in the IPL, then he should have continued to play in the World T20 as well which does not last for more than 15 days because the team needs him.” His fatigue levels have been taken into consideration and given the fact that he wants to play the 2011 world cup too, he chose not to play in the World T20. But when you see such a poor performance by the Indians at a tournament like the World Cup, we only have two reasons for this. One, the team selection was done in a hurry just when the IPL had started. The squad should have been selected after observing the performances in the tournament or at least when the tournament was halfway through, but this was done before that and so we saw players like Uthappa and Kohli missing out on the final fifteen. The second reason can be Tendulkar opting not to play for the T20 world cup. Everyone saw his performances in the IPL and the kind of sublime form he was in. Taking that into consideration he should have opted to play. The truth is that the team genuinely missed him at the matches there. As it has been mentioned earlier, his presence in the dressing room itself is a morale booster for any player who plays at that level!

Concluding the entire thing in a nutshell, the point that I am trying to make here is that the Indian team needs him in all formats of the game. World T20 is something he should not have missed out on given the duration of the tournament which lasted only for 15 days. It has a great effect on a player when they have someone like Sachin playing alongside with them in the field and would have been a completely different scenario at the World cup now.