Top five career comebacks in cricket
Rudyard Kipling might have been philosophizing a little more than what he would have liked when he termed success and failure as merely complementary imposters. This world is hardly utopian, and success, no matter how much you despise admitting it, serves as the yardstick of one’s greatness more often than not.Cricket, like every other thing in life, is no less unforgiving than rewarding. Scoring tons consistently or running through the oppositions’ batting line-ups would elevate you to the stature of legends no sooner than a golden duck in a crucial chase would earn you brickbats. Man is a servant of emotions, and sentiments are bound to swell when the demi-gods in question fail to live up to expectations.Failing once or twice is one thing; being written off is quite another. It calls for immense psychological strength, unfaltering dedication and determined perseverance – and of course, a faint stroke of luck – to silence your critics against all odds. Scripting a comeback from the deepest chasms of despondency is never easy, although all it may take for a turnaround in fortunes is a single half-century or a five-for.Perhaps, it is Yuvraj Singh who exemplifies a comeback in its truest essence. Diagnosed with the emperor of all maladies, the Man of the Tournament during India’s historic 2011 World Cup triumph battled against gruesome mortality and emerged victorious after a grueling few months that had the entire nation praying for his recovery. But the man was not yet done with comebacks. He returned to cricket, was called back into the Indian team and subsequently registered quite a few trademark innings while steering his team towards victory.While Yuvraj remains of paradigm of champion, there have been a handful others too, who had lost all, been written off by pundits, and yet never gave up until eventually managing to engineer a riposte, starring in national colours once again. Here go the top five cricketers who eked out a survival against the tide and scripted their names in cricket’s greatest career comebacks.Special Mention:Mitchell Johnson - "He bowls to the left, He bowls to the right, That Mitchell Johnson, His bowling is sh**e."The Barmy Army's chant during the 2010-11 Ashes at home troubled Mitchell Johnson. Later, he admitted that the he let the taunts affect him a lot. In 2013, he was dropped from the squad prior to the 3rd Test against India in an infamous incident now known as "homeworkgate". Having missed the Ashes in England, when he was touted as the man to watch out for during the return Ashes in Australia by Sachin Tendulkar, not many could have imagined the destruction to come next.Donning a menacing moustache, Mitchell Johnson put on display a performance so memorable in that series, not many Australians, and definitely not many Englishmen, are going to forget it for years to come. 37 wickets at an average of 13.97 in 5 matches - Mitch broke the English dreams with his lethal fast bowling. Bowling regularly at 150 kmph, he showed accuracy which has been lacking for many years in his career so far, Mitchell Johnson became the fastest bowler on the planet, and the most dangerous during this period. He backed this performance with an incredible show in South Africa, picking 22 wickets in 3 matches, almost double than Dale Steyn.Hounded for most of his career for his wayward bowling (a majority of his teammates hate to face him in the nets), Johnson made a spectacular comeback, one which will be remembered for a long time to come.
#5 The Master displays his class
The reasons were much more personal than it was apparent when India’s greatest batsman and finest connoisseur of the cover drive left alone a pitched up delivery wide outside the off-stump in the final Test of the India-Australia series in 2004 at Sydney. Another day, he would have pierced the region between the cover and extra cover with the precision which only he guarantees. But the stakes were different on that warm January morning.
Sachin Tendulkar had garnered a paltry collective of 82 runs in five innings including two ducks on the tour. His last Test century had come against West Indies in Novemeber 2002 at the Eden Gardens. He had already celebrated his 30th birthday a while back and with 31 international tons in the longest format of the game, there was little left for him to achieve.
The obituaries seemed inevitable when Tendulkar was dismissed playing one of his favourite cover drives in the fourth Test. But the man in question had other plans as he adjusted his pads and resolved to make amends in the second session on Day One of the fifth Test. When he finally left the field, he was unconquered on 241 having played not a single off-drive during his arduous knock that spanned 436 balls and 613 minutes.
With a discipline that words continue to fall short of describing even today, Tendulkar left everything outside the off from length balls to juicy half-volleys. He persuaded the Brett Lees to bowl towards him as he capitulated on the gaps and wristed the cherry through the onside with impeccable timing. He returned to carve out an unbeaten 60 in the second innings before finishing the tour with 383 runs at an average of 76.60.