Give Sachin a break! Just literally!!!

Just saw another article on Tendulkar. They keep coming, eh? This time it’s about his body slowing down and his travails against the full length balls. Got to commend Martin Crowe for the point he made on the eyes getting better with age. Though that might vary from person to person, but still it’s something I didn’t think happens. So not the eyes then- right! Let’s go with the body. He says there is a mismatch between what the eyes see and the pace at which the body responds. Perhaps he is right, we would never know.

But I have serious doubts on that. Who is to say that the body wasn’t slow enough last year during the World Cup, when Sachin was in prime form, or even in the home series against West Indies when he looked majestic at times without getting a century. Why weren’t the reflexes slow enough one ball before getting dismissed in the 1^st innings in Bangalore- when he hit a stunning straight drive for 4? Or in the 2^nd innings when there was the classic Tendulkar back-foot punch?

That’s the issue when you look at isolated incidents. When TV replays show the 3 dismissals one by one, it does seem like there is a serious flaw. But if you have seen the match you would see how comfortable the man looked in each innings before suddenly getting out. Maybe it was just a lapse in concentration. All the talk about the body slowing down- I can believe that if there are long phases in Sachin’s innings when he struggles for timing- but that isn’t the case. Wouldn’t a slow body impact your whole innings rather than a couple of balls?

It was similar with Ricky Ponting when he struggled for runs over the last 2 years. Though he remained insistent that he was in good touch, the runs weren’t coming- Till the home series against India, where he seemed to rediscover his touch. My point- if a guy is looking good enough to get runs but still failing, don’t judge him. That’s the yardstick used for younger players too, right?

Also worth pointing out that this has been a long off-season. Last competitive match Tendulkar played before the test series was on 23^rd May 2012, that’s 3 months back, that too in the IPL. No domestic matches, no practice matches since then. I am sure he would have loved to come into the series with some match practice. Possibly he was just too rusty. Perhaps he was a bit complacent. I don’t know for sure. Time will tell, if it has actually slowed down God.