July 19, 2008

It’s a bit difficult to really define Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar in a holistic sense. But pictures speak a thousand words sometimes and this YouTube video pretty much explains the SRT experience for me.

Shot one is a bit edgy, but he gets away with it. The next one is… a shot you see once in 5 years. The last is the coupe de grace trademark. The bowler is the fastest in the world - Brett Lee.

The funny thing about my fascination with SRT is that it grew during his darker days back in 2004-2005… particularly that self-disciplined 241* @ Sydney. That might have been his homage to Mr. Gavaskar, and what a way to honor the great technician. Until then, I acknowledged his greatness but I never actually found any emotion in his persona. Strangely, I appreciate his past exploits more now than I did when they actually happened.

Like no batsman I have ever seen - he has shown the resolve to evolve with the environment & his own constraints. No batsman has a commitment to innovation like SRT. The effortless parrying over slip in the recent Australia series against Lee & co. were a testament to his versatility. He owned the straight drive and now he owns that shot.

In the game today, only Kevin Pietersen has the shot versatility and commitment to innovation to match him. KP also has incredible physical presence and reach to alter the length of the delivery to his taste.

Yuvraj Singh, if he spends a season or two in Australia, might be a good match for KP. He really needs to improve his short-game. The cut, the pull, the hook- they need to be a ready part of his batting vocabulary on faster, bouncier pitches.

Back to the old guard… and a certain Brian Charles Lara… but that’s a blog entry by itself.

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