Murali Vijay, Virat Kohli or Aijnkya Rahane - Who has been India's best Test batter since Sachin Tendulkar's retirement
14th November 2013 - The stage was set. A stage fitting the occasion, the occasion as paramount as any the game had ever witnessed; a retirement, a colossal retirement; a void, a void to be filled, a void that will probably never truly be filled, the time had come. Sachin Tendulkar was to play his final part in a story he wrote for himself, he had scripted his own path for the longest time, it was time for the others to pay him back.
And thus, it was to be, the Wankhede Stadium, India vs West Indies, the final chapter. Over the course of the one-sided Test match that was specially scheduled for the great man, fans took in the sight of the ‘master blaster’ at the crease for the last time.
As Sachin walked away from a 24 year-long career where he achieved everything in the game, questions were being asked of Team India’s ability to cope with the loss of the mercurial batsmen.
Over the course of the two and a half years since his retirement, there have been plenty of contenders to the throne. In this piece, we analyse the performance of three batsmen who have outperformed the others and try to derive a conclusion as to who has really taken the mantle from Sachin.