Sachin : The Best Test Batsman

Whenever Sachin creates a landmark (yeah he creates not reaches), the debate starts - whether he is the best batsman who played the game, whether he should get Bharat Ratna, etc.

There is no comparison in ODIs, people always compare the test records. I will also do the same.

I remember last year or so people used to compare him with his contemporaries mostly Ricky Ponting, but in my mind Ricky was never close to him. The strongest argument I had that Ricky has never played against world strongest side - Australia and Sachin has scored more than, as of today, 20% of his runs(3151 runs) and centuries(11) against Australia. A great cricketer is not only who plays well but also how he conducts himself on the field, and Ricky stands nowhere near Sachin on this.

But this year media commentators, critics after realizing that Sachin is incomparable to his contemporaries, they started the comparison with past greats like Sir Don Bradman, Vivian Richards, Sunil Gavaskar, etc. With no disrespect to these cricketers, I feel Sachin stands taller here too.

Although the comparison is not fair, if at all I have tocompare, I would stress on below points:

• Bradman played most of his game against same opposition England and West Indies with almost same set of bowlers. Sachin has played his game against more than 9 opposition teams, both home and away. So I would say exposure for Sachin, in terms of both conditions and opposition, was lot more than Bradman.

• Bradman played only one format of the game. It was maximum 5-6 tests per year i.e. one month on the field. Sachin is playing in the era where players have to play 9-10 tests, 30-35 ODIs and with T20 & IPL around, 20 more matches. Players seldom get a break. One needs a lot of fitness, discipline and strict regime to follow to cope with this calender. Switching between different formats and excelling in all formats makes Sachin a complete batsman.

• Coming to statistics, I agree that Bradman has spectacular average of 99.96, but one has to understand that he played 52 test matches, whereas Sachin has played 175+ tests. If I compare the average of players who has played 100+ matches, Sachin, with 56.54, come second in the list (Kallis is 0.06 ahead of him and I am sure Sachin will take over). In 150+ list, Sachin is at the top (with difference of almost 3 with next, Ricky Ponting has 53.51). I believe this comparison is fair and Sachin tops here too.

• If you see the list of top bowlers of all time(Murali, Warnie, Kumble, McGrath, Walsh), Sachin has played his cricket when all these bowlers were active in international cricket. Even in top 10 list, only Richard Hadlee is the one whom Sachin might not have faced. This speaks volumes about the greatness of Sachin.

• Last but not least, cricket is a religion in India. Whenever Sachin takes the field he carries the expectations of billion of Indians. Definitely Bradman would not have batted with this much of pressure.
  

Should Sachin get the Bharat Ratna, that is another debate. Will discuss sometime later.


For Now... Hail Sachin !!!
Hari.