It is difficult not to agree with Sachin Tendulkar's assessment that the Indian batting in ODIs today is the strongest it has been during his career which now runs almost 20 years.
The Indian maestro has played alongside at least three generations of cricketers. When he started his career Kris Srikkanth was the Indian captain and alongside him were Dilip Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri and Navjot Sigh Sidhu who had made their international debuts in the seventies or early eighties.
Through the nineties Tendulkar's teammates included Md Azharuddin, Sanjay Manjrekar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman. And in the new millennium even as the others have retired or no longer figure in the ODI team Tendulkar is still around making his presence felt and with him are players who made their debut in the new millennium like Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Gautam Gambhir and Suresh Raina. Sehwag is the only other batsman who is over 30 and he made his ODI debut in 1999.
So Tendulkar certainly knows what he is talking about. He missed being part of the great Indian squads of the mid-80s which won the World Cup in England and the World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985. But Ganguly's team in the early years of the first decade in the new millennium were certainly world beaters - the NatWest Trophy triumph and the runners-up spot in the 2003 World Cup underlining their strength. Around this time Indian batting touched new heights and numerous world records were set.
Up until not too long ago, the partnership records for the first five wickets were all held by Indian pairs. Tendulkar, of course, has gone on to become the highest run-getter and century maker with Ganguly and Dravid not far behind. The runs were also being scored at a faster rate...Sehwag’s pyrotechnics symbolizing this. But as Tendulkar has put it, never before in Indian cricket has there been a line-up of half a dozen players who can score runs really quickly, loft the ball higher into the stands and bat with a degree of consistency that is pretty intimidating for most bowlers. With such an explosive line-up no target seems beyond the Indians.
And, while the bat has been dominating in limited overs cricket now more than ever before – optiomized by that marvellous game at Johannesburg between Australia and South Africa in 2006 which saw 872 runs being scored – it is fair to say that the Indian batting is the most lustrous in world cricket today. The career strike rates of Yuvraj, Dhoni and Sehwag underline this and Gambhir and Raina are fast catching up. Tendulkar is still dangerous as he proved at Christchurch while in Yusuf Pathan they have a specialist limited-overs cricketer who believes only in getting his runs through fours and sixes.
The awesome batting strength is certainly one reason why India have performed admirably of late in limited overs cricket. But if the triumphant 80s squads still did better in terms of winning the major trophies it was because it had more incisive bowlers. The presence of someone like Kapil Dev was always going to be an inspiration and the attack was probably more balanced and certainly more penetrative with a number of utility players.
About a quarter of a century ago the batting was nowhere as strong as it is today but it was the bowling that won matches and trophies. One recalls the triumphant WCC campaign in Australia when the Indians bowled out the opposition inside 50 overs in every match except the final when Pakistan were nine down. In the previous World Cup, two years before, the Indians bowled out Australia, England and the West Indies (twice). And on the occasions the Indians had batted first, the totals ranged only between 183 and 266. The apotheosis came about during the Rothman's Cup match at Sharjah in 1985 when the Indians successfully defended a total of 125 by bowling out Pakistan for 87.
Overall then the Indian team was probably stronger a quarter of a century ago but where the batting is concerned Tendulkar is bang on target. The Indians have never had it so good. We can certainly expect even bigger totals run up in spectacular fashion, more individual and partnership records and longer and more consistent hits into the stands and beyond.
And of course, there will always be the magnificent batting from the little master, who notched up his 42nd Test century! What odds he gets to 50?
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