Team India moves into post Sachin era

Hyderabad: Today is the first day of the post Tendulkar era for Team India. The batsman who seemed to move mountains in making tons of runs kept India in the hunt for so long while working up a very respectable 72 win-72 draw ratio in 200 appearances. He leaves behind a legacy of a very competitive Indian team which was a virtual Test second-rung team in 1989.

The point to ponder is whether NextGen would be as fiercely committed to Test match cricket as Sachin was. All that may be left of the prestige of Test cricket a few years down the road is an occasional celebrated series among top rung teams.

It is only a matter of time before T20 takes over completely from ODIs as the premier form of the game.
No force in cricket or outside is going to change that.

By a quirk of fate, post-Sachin's retirement, Team India finds itself in battle with the world's top ranked Test team. To challenge the Proteas on their home turf would have been hard enough with Sachin in the team.

Remember the little master's last great Test contribution came two centuries, including a crucial hard-fought one in Cape Town where India drew and was able to return with a rare 1-1 result from South Africa.

Cricket's loaded pitches are like loaded dice. Results can become somewhat predictable.

But India should be the last country to complain about designer pitches since so many have been made to welcome touring teams here.
Sometimes, hosts can be hoist by their own petard as South Africa were when India used seam-friendly conditions in Kingsmead, Durban to win a first ever Test there.

With the series scores level at 1-1, Sachin made a second century on top of the one he had made in the losing cause in the first Test at Centurion to ensure that India came away with honours shared.

That was a significant achievement in days when Team India were top of the heap in Tests. The ranking was intact, so too pride. The roles are reversed now with South Africa on top and India doing the chasing.

A sporting pitch with loads of life in it has not always acted to the detriment of Team India whose pathetic away record post-2012 was caused more by bowling failures than the batting.

There is a chance again that India's quicks may shine in South Africa. The question now is will the batting be able to hold up as it did on the last tour. The performances in ODIs prevent one from making a sanguine forecast about the batting in the Test series.

Sachin's last known form may not have helped a great deal had he decided to play on.

The test by pace may have been too much even for him. The problem is India will also be missing Gambhir, Sehwag, Laxman and Dravid besides Sachin from the last tour which ended in January 2011.

Three years is a very long time in sport and the face of Team India's batting has changed completely in that time.
Only Murali Vijay, Pujara and Dhoni were in the batting line-up of the last tour too (besides Suresh Raina who is no more a Test regular).

What then are the chances of the batting holding up against the threat of pace, bounce and movement? We will know soon enough. And a 2-Test tour would hardly offer the space for great comebacks. The threat will be from the first ball as Dhoni faces up to the challenge of restoring his team's credibility in away series.