Mumbai, Dec 12: Allan Border, Craig McDermott and Merv Hughes saw him play in Australia while he was still in his teens. Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Mark Waugh battled against him in his prime. Steve Waugh, Damien Martyn and Stuart MacGill applauded his feats. Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist cheered him on in what they believed would be his last tour of their country. And as Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon and James Pattinson get ready to play India for the first time in their fledgling international careers, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar remains the only constant between touring Indian sides to Australia between 1991-’92 and 2011-’12.
Like Sunil Gavaskar before him against the West Indies, Tendulkar has made his performances count against the best side of his time, Australia, both home and away. The Indian legend averages an impressive 60.59 against the Australians over a span of 31 Test matches vis-à-vis a career average of 56.02. Playing away from home, in Australia, Tendulkar has been as prolific, having scored 1522 runs from 16 Test matches at the hugely impressive average of 58.53. Additionally, he has six centuries and five half-centuries to go with his formidable record in the proud cricketing nation that gave us Don Bradman. In terms of his individual record against the all-conquering Australians, Tendulkar sits ahead of his peers by quite some distance:
|
Player / Country |
Category |
Matches |
Inns |
NO |
Runs |
HS |
Ave |
100 |
50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Sachin Tendulkar |
v Australia |
31 |
59 |
7 |
3151 |
241* |
60.59 |
11 |
13 |
|
India |
in Australia |
16 |
30 |
4 |
1522 |
241* |
58.53 |
6 |
5 |
|
Alastair Cook |
v Australia |
15 |
26 |
1 |
1264 |
235* |
50.56 |
4 |
3 |
|
England |
in Australia |
10 |
17 |
1 |
1042 |
235* |
65.12 |
4 |
2 |
|
Ian Bell |
v Australia |
18 |
31 |
1 |
971 |
115 |
32.36 |
1 |
11 |
|
England |
in Australia |
10 |
16 |
1 |
660 |
115 |
44.00 |
1 |
7 |
|
Kevin Pietersen |
v Australia |
17 |
30 |
2 |
1476 |
227 |
52.71 |
3 |
8 |
|
England |
in Australia |
10 |
16 |
1 |
850 |
227 |
56.66 |
2 |
4 |
|
Rahul Dravid |
v Australia |
29 |
54 |
6 |
1972 |
233 |
41.08 |
2 |
12 |
|
India |
in Australia |
12 |
24 |
4 |
972 |
233 |
48.60 |
1 |
5 |
|
Sourav Ganguly |
v Australia |
24 |
44 |
4 |
1403 |
144 |
35.07 |
2 |
7 |
|
India |
in Australia |
11 |
20 |
0 |
696 |
144 |
34.80 |
1 |
4 |
|
VVS Laxman |
v Australia |
25 |
46 |
5 |
2279 |
281 |
55.58 |
6 |
11 |
|
India |
in Australia |
11 |
21 |
1 |
1081 |
178 |
54.05 |
4 |
3 |
|
Jacques Kallis |
v Australia |
26 |
49 |
5 |
1722 |
114 |
39.13 |
4 |
9 |
|
South Africa |
in Australia |
12 |
23 |
3 |
915 |
111 |
45.75 |
2 |
5 |
|
Brian Lara |
v Australia |
31 |
58 |
2 |
2856 |
277 |
51.00 |
9 |
11 |
|
West Indies |
in Australia |
19 |
35 |
0 |
1469 |
277 |
41.97 |
4 |
4 |
But just like a boundary may be scored off the inside edge as well as the middle of the bat, statistics alone never tell the impact made by a player during an innings. Tendulkar’s cricketing performances in Australia, similarly, warrant a more qualitative analysis.
When he toured Australia for the very first time in 1991-’92 as a precocious teenager, Sachin Tendulkar was one of the few bright sparks in a series that India lost 4-0. Only 18 years old then, Sachin hit two centuries on that tour; 148* at Sydney followed by 114 at Perth. While Sachin is often known to value the Perth innings as his best, the great Australian Richie Benaud rated the Sydney innings as ‘flawless’, more so because at 18 years and 256 days, Sachin became the youngest player ever to score a Test century in Australia. It is a record that stands to this day.
The disappointment of 1991-’92 was followed by an even more dismal tour of 1999-’00 where India suffered the ignominy of a whitewash (3-0). Yet Tendulkar came away from that series with his head held high. Saddled with the additional responsibility of captaincy, Tendulkar struck 278 runs from six innings, a performance which won him the Man-of-the-Series award. Tendulkar’s form stood in stark contrast to that of the other Indian batsmen who kept India’s average innings’ score in that series down to a mere 207 runs. To put things in perspective, in England earlier this year, when an injury-hampered India lost the Test series 4-0 to the hosts, India’s average innings score was a far healthier 256.
Then came the 2003-’04 tour when a struggling Tendulkar found the most improbable solution to get back to top form. Wiser from five previous dismissals in the series which saw him aggregate a mere 82 runs, Tendulkar stopped himself from offering a shot to anything remotely pitched on or outside the off stump. The result was a mammoth individual score of 241* at Sydney, characterised by abstinence rather than heroics.
2007-’08 was a memorable affair as the Indian legend carved the Australian attack for 493 runs from eight innings with hundreds at Sydney (154*) and Adelaide (153). However, while the Australians reeled under his onslaught in Tests, Tendulkar saved his best for the CB Series finals. With a maiden ODI century in Australia (117*), followed by an innings of 91, Tendulkar gave India their first ever tri-series win Down Under.
The ultimate vindication for Tendulkar’s standing as a batsman without equal in the Australian consciousness, though, can be heard in the country’s three most influential cricketing voices.
Not only did Bradman famously compare the Indian batsman to himself, he also considered Tendulkar to be the only international player from the current generation to be good enough to make it to his all-time XI. Richie Benaud, in an exercise similar to Bradman’s, included Sachin at No. 5 in his Greatest XI. Finally, Shane Warne, Tendulkar’s peer for most part of the latter’s career, saved Sachin the top spot on his list of 50 greatest cricketers. Warne even said of Tendulkar, “Outside grounds [in India], people wait until [Tendulkar] goes in before paying to enter […] [Tendulkar] grew up under the incredible weight of expectation and never buckled once – not under poor umpiring decisions or anything else.”
It is a tribute, too, to Tendulkar’s genius that he alone has managed to unite three generations of Australian greats thanks to their shared opinion of him.
All stats in the article as are as on December 12, 2011
