Can an Indian batsmen emulate Sachin and Dravid in the 2019 World Cup?
For an International Cricketer, playing in a World Cup is the ultimate honor. For a batsman, scoring a century in the quadrennial event is a special thing. A step further, if he emerges as the top run scorer of the tournament, the feat is a legendary achievement
Though India won their first World Cup way back in 1983, it was mainly on top of some good all-round performances and an excellent exhibition of swing bowling from their seam bowlers. The batsmen had almost played the role of second fiddle.
It was not until the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar that Indian batting started thriving in the limited overs format. Another factor to add were the formulation of new ICC rules in the early 90s, tilting the game's weight in the favor of batsmen.
Achieving greatness in 1996
Sachin got himself promoted to the role of an opener in 1994 and started exploiting the batting friendly rules by finding the gaps between the fielders to place his classy strokes. The runs started flowing thickly and consistently from his bat.
By the time the Little Master had gained the mastery over his ODI batting, the 1996 World Cup came around in which the pitches were tailor-made for batting in the subcontinent. He opened up the Indian campaign with a masterly unbeaten 127 against Kenya.
Sachin followed it up with another classy 70 against West Indies which helped India win two back to back matches almost sealing the Quarter Final berth. He continued his rich form against Australia as well with another fighting knock of 90 but it ended up in a losing cause.
The Mumbaikar was in full flow in India's fourth match against co-hosts Sri Lanka. He scored run a ball 137 with eight fours and five sixes helping India post a competitive total of 271.
But the valiant knock went in vain as his bowling teammates came under a huge onslaught from the Lankan opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana who took away the match in the first 10 overs of their innings.
After a string of low scores in the next two matches, Sachin was again in his element in the semi-finals against the same opponents. Chasing the target of 251 in a rank turner at Kolkata, Indians were in command till the time he was on the crease.
After Sachin was stumped for 65, the men in blue's innings fumbled from 98 for 1 to 120 for 8 leading to agitation from the Kolkata crowd forcing the match referee to hand over the match to Lankans.
After the bizarre exit, the only consolation for India was Sachin who emerged as the highest run-getter of the tournament with 523 runs in seven innings with an excellent average of 87.16.
Taking it to another level in 2003
Sachin though had a modest outing in 1999 but bettered his 1996 numbers in 2003 which was hosted in the African continent. He got his bat redesigned a bit by adding more meat in the upper part of the bat in order to adjust to the length and height of the bouncy African surfaces.
Indian did not have the best of start after just scraping through against Holland in the opening match and received a drubbing in the hands of mighty Australians in the next. The blame was fully on the batting unit which performed badly barring Sachin who scored 52 and 36 respectively in those matches.
What happened next was a masterpiece in batting. In the next four league matches, Sachin displayed a high quality of batting by scoring 81, 152, 50 and 98. The 98 in 75 balls against Pakistan has found its name among the cricketing folklore.
Chasing a target of 274, Sachin treated the Pakistani bowlers with utter disdain taking all the front-line bowlers to the cleaners. Getting good support from the other end, first from Sehwag then from Kaif, he ensured his opponents never get a chance to dominate the match.
The Maestro continued his form in Super Six as well by scoring a masterly 97 against Sri Lanka and backed up with a breezy 83 against Kenya in the semi-finals taking his aggregate beyond 600 in that edition.
The final against the eventual champion Australia tuned out to be an anti-climax. The target of 359 appeared to be too big a task for Indians. Sachin mistimed his pull at the individual score of 4 in the first over and led to the end of any hopes India had.
Despite the failure in the final, the little master ended the tournament with a mammoth 673 runs in 11 innings at an average of 61.18 He was also judged as the "Player of the tournament".
Filling the gap in 1999
The gap left by Sachin in 1999 was filled by another Indian batting great Rahul Dravid. Popularly known as "The Wall", he used the tough swinging conditions of England to make his mark on the sport's biggest event.
He started the World Cup campaign with a stylish 54 of 75 against South Africa but India lost the game. In India's second league match against Zimbabwe, Dravid chased a wide delivery to get out for just 13 as India lost suffered a shocking defeat.
After the two losses, India's World Cup campaign was up against the wall as they needed to win all the remaining three league matches to make it for Super Six stage. Someone had to really perform at his peak and "The Wall" took up the challenge.
In the next two World Cup fixtures against Kenya and Sri Lanka, Dravid scored two back to back hundreds (104* and 145). In the former, he shared an unbeaten 237 runs partnership with Sachin and in the latter, he went few notches above by stitching another partnership of 318 with Sourav Ganguly; which was a new batting record in that time.
Playing the role of wicket-keeper as well, Dravid's knock of 145 against Sri Lanka was a special one as he became the first (and the only till the time of this writing) gloveman to score a century from India in the quadrennial event.
Though Ganguly top-scored with 183 in that match, it was Dravid who went after the Lankan bowling in the early and mid stages of the Indian innings with nicely timed boundaries in a knock which had class written all over it.
Indian cricket's Mr. Consistent was simply not in a mood to stop! He followed it up with a gritty 53 against England in the final league match. This helped India post a competitive total on a tough surface before the bowlers ensured victory and a Super Six slot for India.
The classy Number three scored another match-winning knock of 61 against Pakistan in a Super Six fixture but Indians couldn't advance to the semi-finals because of the losses they suffered in other matches.
But the ouster couldn't stop Dravid from becoming the top run scorer in that tournament. He amassed 461 runs in 8 innings with an average of 65.6.
Can an Indian repeat their feat in 2019?
After those three consecutive editions, though Indian batting unit has continued its good showing but no one has been successful in reaching the top spot in the run-scoring charts of the coveted tournament.
As the new edition is about to start, all eyes will be again on the Indian batting which is at present one of the strongest among the participating teams. The top 3, openers Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and their captain at Virat Kohli are in great nick.
Collectively, the awesome threesome have 561 matches, more than 24000 runs with 79 ODI centuries to their credit. All of them have an average above 44. Moreover, each of them has the experience of playing in the most competitive ODI tournament.
If all of them strike rich with the bat in England then it will not only help India get deeper into the tournament, but there is a high probability as well that one of them may emulate Sachin and Dravid in becoming the top run scorer at a World Cup.
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