Sachin Tendulkar having a T20 party

Mumbai: Sachin Tendulkar has faced more balls and scored more runs than any other Mumbai Indians player this season. He is scoring at a strike rate of close to 150. He has hit 45 boundaries, the most among the top-10 run-getters this season. He has only one six against his name, the least among the toppers, including Jacques Kallis, Matthew Hayden, Virender Sehwag among others, suggesting that risk-taking is not his wont now.

In short, the Mumbai Indians skipper, opening the innings, has dropped anchor. Against Deccan Chargers on Sunday, he made 50 off 43 balls and was dismissed only in the 17th over; versus Chennai Super Kings he made 72 off 52 in a successful chase and was out only in the 19th over. The Kolkata Knight Riders witnessed Tendulkar’s class when he made a smooth unbeaten 71 off 48 during a chase.

As a skipper also he seems on the ball. He asked Harbhajan Singh to open the bowling against Adam Gilchrist. The off-spinner came round the wicket and lured Gilchrist to cut the ball towards third man. Tendulkar, falling to his right, took a one-handed reflex catch at first slip to trigger an adrenaline rush that boosted the Mumbai Indians to a 41-run win. Tendulkar has also shown faith in young Indian batsmen, playing 20-year-old Saurabh Tiwary above the likes of Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo. Ambati Rayudu, Aditya Tare and Rajagopal Sathish have enjoyed his faith. Pollard, rumoured to me the highest paid player this season, told this paper last week that Tendulkar is always a step ahead.

TA Sekhar, team director, believes that the Tendulkar’s passion is there for all to see. “I don’t think Sachin has ever played just for the heck of playing. He definitely wants to perform whenever he enters the field,” Sekhar said on Monday when asked about Tendulkar the skipper.

Sekhar believes the team has benefited by Tendulkar playing the anchor’s role and others batting around him. “He is playing terrific cricketing shots. He’s shown that Twenty20 is about hitting sixes and fours. He phases his innings so well that he can get eight to 10 runs at any given point of time,” the team director said.

So in awe of Tendulkar’s form in the IPL were former greats Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar that they urged him to play for India in the World Twenty20 in the Caribbean starting April 30. Tendulkar, of course, didn’t oblige.

“There isn’t any other player with his amount of experience. He knows exactly what to do and what not to do. One of the things is his behaviour on the field - he always manages to stay calm and he talks to the players very nicely and makes players feel like they are at home. He knows what exactly needs to be done at the crunch,” Sekhar added.

Lalchand Rajput, the Mumbai Indians coach in Season I, believes that Tendulkar is playing his role to perfection. “As a skipper he is leading from the front and looks in complete control in the middle. As Tendulkar has adopted the role of an anchor, the other stroke players in the side like the Bravos and Pollards can play freely. He seems to be enjoying leading. At the moment, Mumbai Indians look well-balanced as all their star players are available. Tendulkar has also managed to bring the best out of the young Indian players,” Rajput added.