A Sachin fan in Kohli's time
It had been one year since the turn of the millennium and Sourav Ganguly was making a great deal of progress both as a captain and as a batsman. Especially in ODIs, he was matching his opening partner Sachin Tendulkar stroke for stroke. For the records, he had scored 7097 runs in 181 ODI matches with the help of 18 centuries. This was better than Sachin’s record (just above 6000 runs with the help of 13 centuries) after 181 matches.
As a Sachinist, I was worried
Not that I am not a Sourav fan, but then Sachin is Sachin. So, as a Sachinist, I was worried, that if Dada (as he was called) continued at this rate, he would surpass the God. Even the mere thought of someone breaking Sachin’s record was scary. Thankfully for me, Sachin scaled greater heights and Sourav was unable to keep up the same pace in the later years.
Sachin had picked out Kohli as his probable successor
As you would have guessed, the above reference was because of the recent comparison between Sachin & Virat Kohli. Sports writers and statisticians have left no stones unturned in digging out numbers to prove their point. Yet again, the numbers are tilted heavily in favour of Kohli. In fact, Sachin himself had picked out Kohli & Rohit Sharma as the probables to break his record of a century of centuries at a celebration many years back.
Will it happen? I am not a fortune-teller to comment on the future. Purely going by the past trend, Kohli looks in good position to break Sachin’s records. But then the game of cricket is beyond than just these numbers. There are various factors which will govern the eventual outcome.
How will I convince the future generations that Sachin was the greatest batsman that I saw?
But as a Sachin fan, I am jittery. While, I enjoy Kohli’s batting, but there’s always this sense of worry that I have every time Kohli punches the ball to the boundary. His every century gives me a feeling that Sachin might be de-throned. How will I convince the future generations that Sachin was the greatest batsman that I saw?
I know my father’s generation would have gone through a similar dilemma when Sachin was nearing the great Sunil Gavaskar’s record of test runs. Or when Brian Lara would have broken Sir Garfield Sober’s record of the highest test-score in an innings. I remember my father debating with me that Gavaskar faced the West-Indian quicks of the 70s without a helmet and hence he was superior to Sachin. Most of our cricketing discussions would conclude with my father saying that Sachin is good, but Gavaskar was better. We would agree to disagree.
The baton had been passed
Given Kohli’s current form, I fear I will have to go through a similar discussion with the next generation. And I am not happy with that thought. At this juncture, I am reminded of the fall of Sachin’s wicket in the 2011 World Cup Final against Sri Lanka. Kohli was walking in and Ravi Shastri who was the commentator then said, “As the master departs for the final time in World Cup cricket. And a young turk walks out into the centre with number 18 on his back.”
As many people have said in the past, this was probably the symbolic passing of the baton from Sachin to Kohli. But what at least I had never imagined was that Kohli would soon be in line to go past Sachin. Yes, as an Indian cricket fan, I am delighted with Kohli’s success and in awe seeing his batting; but then the Sachinist inside me has mixed feelings.