Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid: The void which can never ever be filled

Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid

IPL 7 is on, yes the extravaganza is back, this is the moment when the commoners of India and the world are glued to only one cause, the IPL.

IPL is much more than just cricket. Nowhere in the world has a youngster with factually zero experience got a chance to play with some of the best in the world. Well this year’s IPL is somewhat different. We are missing a couple of legends who have been the back bone of cricket in the past two decades.

Yes, targets of 180 + are being chased down, wickets have stumbled in a span of a couple of overs but still something is missing. Mumbai Indians have failed miserably; they have lost all their matches on foreign turf. But there is one man sitting in the dug-out who knows that things would have been different had he taken the field. Yes, that number 10 jersey has retired, but his presence in the dug-out has made things emotional. Yes we all know eighty runs could have been easily been chased in those thirty balls, had that guy being in the playing eleven. Mumbai’s top order would have clicked, had that guy taken the field for one last time.

From being the IPL champions to losing five games in a row, only a single thing has changed. Yes, we did sell Glenn Maxwell but in turn we got Mike Hussey and the MVP of the Big Bash, Ben Dunk. Yes, we have a support staff comprising of Jonty Rhodes, Ricky Ponting, Anil Kumble and the chief coach as John Wright, but still, we are missing the presence of one legend, he had been the back bone of Indian cricket for the past two and a half decades.

As a cricket fan it is so painful to see that great man on the television but not able to see him take the field smacking the bowlers all around. The likes of Dale Steyn, Lasith Malinga and Sunil Narine would have been taken the beating had he been there. Of course, Sharjah was the venue where Sachin had given nightmares to the likes of Warne and McGrath.

Sachin has done it at a time when there were no field restrictions; he has faced and ripped apart the best the cricketing arena has ever seen. People say that Virat Kohli is the next Tendulkar. I say he can never ever become Tendulkar because after having gone under the knife for so many times and still holding the Indian fortress upright for 25 years is something magical.

Rahul Sharad Dravid is another stalwart who is being missed this time around. He has taken RR to the next level. His sheer brilliance made RR a formidable side in spite of the zillion controversies that cropped up during last year’s IPL. Nobody in this world has the ability to make a bowler lose his line and length out of frustration. Rahul Dravid has been the wall which nobody on this earth was able to breach.

This IPL is special in its own way. It will turn the tables for many rookie cricketers across the globe. But this IPL lacks something which can never ever be filled in. These two great men will be missed every single time cricket is talked about in India and the world.