I don't understand how can a cricket team, supposed to having a formidable line up of batsmen, is failing so miserably in their overseas tours? The Indian cricket team were beaten soundly by the English team in each of the four Tests. Before the start of that tour we were the World's top ranked Test team. When the tour ended the top team was white washed 0-4. Can a team which were supposed to be the best give up without a fight and lose every match? Were the Australians in their heyday ever perform so badly?
Now also the Indians are being meted the same treatment by the Australians. They lost the first Test and were shot out for under 200 runs in the second Test at Sydney on the first day itself. Now, what is hard to digest is everyone is concentrating on Saching Tendulkar getting his 100th century. Come on guys! We should concentrate on the team picking itself up and making a fight out of the remaining four days of the Sydney Test and the two remaining matches. Okay, Sachin maybe a great batsman but cricket is a team sport and there are 10 other players in the team. Why should we concentrate on one individual. Moreover, I consider Jaques Kallis a better batsman than Sachin for the simple reason that he has won more matches for South Africa and saved more matches than Sachin has done for India.
Even Ricky Ponting has a much better record than Sachin as he has won and saved many matches for his team single handedly. Even Don Bradman, who is now being considered second best to Sachin, played many match winning knocks.
I don't buy this thing that Sachin alone could not have saved India matches or won matches. If he can't then he should not be idolized like he is now. He should be seen in the same light as the performance by the team. India lost all their Tests in England and they have started on the same note in Australia, losing the opener and on the backfoot in the second.
Sachin has been playing for more than 22 years now. Anyone playing for such a long time is bound to break records. So, what he has done is nothing extraordinary. It would have been special if he won India more matches but sadly he accumulated more personal milestones than for his team.
Same goes for guys like Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. In England Sehwag kept on playing in the same way and getting out early when India needed a start badly. Laxman failed miserably in England and now in Australia, and Dravid is failing in Australia.
In cricket, past performances don't count. Everybody from Sunil Gavaskar to the players were gung ho about the chances in Australia. They were saying that this is the best chance for India to win a series as the Australians are at their weakest after their first loss to New Zealand at home for 28 years. But nobody told them that India has always struggled there. One or two batsmen may click but collectively neither the batting fires nor the bowling. And that is what is happening. Now, we are staring at a whitewash against a supposedly weak team.
I sincerely wish that we are able to save the Sydney Test and try to put a fight in the rest of the matches. I am least bothered that in the process Sachin gets a hundred or not. If he has to get a hundred be it in a Test India wins or he gets one saving India from getting defeated. I don't want him to get a century in a losing cause.
