The opinions that Sachin Tendulkar should be dropped from the indian cricket are getting hotter these days. We know in the last two years, he has been in an out with injuries, and is nowhere near is best. But is Sachin that bad that he should be dropped? Lets look at the figures.
Following is the stat of the Indian Batsman who have played at least 5 games in the 2006/2007 season including the 3rd ODI in chennai against the West Indies.
Mat Runs HS BatAv 100 50
Tendulkar 14 480 141* 36.92 1 3
Dravid 12 358 63 32.54 0 4
Dhoni 13 336 62* 30.54 0 3
Karthik 6 113 63 22.60 0 1
Pathan 8 148 64 21.14 0 1
Raina 10 131 34 16.37 0 0
Yuvraj 5 64 27* 16.00 0 0
Kaif 6 80 30 16.00 0 0
Sehwag 10 148 65 14.80 0 1
Clearly, Sachin tops in run, highest score, and century. Only Dravid has scored one more half century than Sachin, but Dravid's average is less. So after he came back from injury, Sachin has been the best from the Indian team although he is running through bad form.
Then how can people shout that Sachin should be dropped from the team?
Now lets look at the current world's greatest batsmen in the 2006/2007 season:
Mat Runs HS BatAv 100 50
Tendulkar 14 480 141* 36.92 1 3
Ponting 14 460 111 38.33 1 5
Lara 19 472 87 33.71 0 3
Gilchrist 11 298 92 27.09 0 3
Hayden 8 324 117 46.28 1 1
Hussey 14 392 109* 98.00 1 1
Gibbs 9 225 93* 32.14 0 2
Kallis 11 332 119* 36.88 1 1
Strauss 8 210 56 26.25 0 2
Yousuf 5 153 71 51.00 0 1
Ricky ponting is the talk of the show thesedays has performed marginally better than Sachin in average but his total run score is less than sachin in the same no of matches. So Ponting's better average is only because of not-outs. Lara's case is even worse bothe in runs and average. Why dont people talk about Lara and Ponting being dropped when they havent performed as well as sachin?
Hussey's average is 98 in the last 14 games but his total score is 392 while Sachin's is 480 in the same no of matches. So Hussey has remained not-out more often as he comes towards the end.
See the stats guys. Sachin is going through the worst form of his life, but he has scored more runs than anyone of Ponting, Lara, Youhana, Kallis, or Hussey.
But we still love to say that Lara and Ponting are far better as batsman than Sachin. Totally wrong!! Sachin has been named Man of the Match 51 times, which is the highest by any player. The second is Jayasurya, about 40 times and Lara 30 times.
Sachin is not my favourite batsman ( I am a fan of Kallis), but I must confess Sachin is the most thrilling to watch. But we still love to say that he isnt a match winner, and is a choker. This is because we expect him to hit century in every other match, go after renouned bowlers every over. Somewhere inside, we think he is the God of Cricket , and we want him to perform like that.
