Sachin Tendulkar’s 19-year quest to reach the pinnacle of cricket as the leading run-scorer in Tests will hold the cricketing world’s attention as the second Test between India and Australia starts in Mohali on Friday.
Having scored 11 939 runs at the phenomenal average of 54,02, the 35-year-old is just 15 runs short of passing West Indian Brian Lara, the other great stroke-player of the era, as the most prolific run-scorer in Test history. He will almost certainly do it this weekend as he seeks to deflect talk that he should be considering retirement.
Tendulkar played a key role in ensuring India drew the first Test in Bangalore, batting for about three hours on the final day. Despite the longevity of his career, combined with playing under the harshest spotlight of all (the expectations of billions of Indian devotees), Tendulkar has maintained himself very well after 151 Tests and 417 ODIs.
South African coach Mickey Arthur has no doubts about his class.
”Sachin looked tremendous in the second innings, as good as ever. I honestly can’t see any signs of age. His eyes are obviously still good, his hands are as quick as ever and, just as important, his running between the wickets is still sharp. Anybody looking for proof of decline should look elsewhere, in my opinion,” Arthur said.
Tendulkar’s great gift is that, even when he failed, he could make batting look ridiculously easy, whether on the bouncy, pace-friendly tracks of South Africa and Australia, the spinners’ paradises on the sub-continent or the green seamers of England and New Zealand.
It is a measure of his sublime skills that opposing fans would lick their lips at the prospect of a Tendulkar cameo.
There is no doubt that time is catching up with him — injuries, particularly elbow niggles, are happening frequently — but the man most Australian bowlers of the past 19 years would rate as the hardest batsman to bowl at remains a potent threat.
At his best Tendulkar displays such sureness of foot movement, whether going forward or back, that bowlers wonder where to pitch the ball. Despite being a small man — just 1,65m — the Little Master can tear attacks apart thanks to exquisite timing and placement and the strength of his wrists.
He already has the record for the most Test centuries (39) and the most runs in ODIs (16 361), but the leading run-scorer title will add the final garnish to an extraordinary career that began in 1989 in Karachi when he was 16.
Extraordinary enough for the greatest cricketer of all time — Sir Donald Bradman — to say to his wife that Tendulkar was the batsman who reminded him most of himself.