Big man's shot story

From aggressor to accumulator, Tendulkar changed with the times

Virender Sehwag may have patented the upper cut but there is ample evidence to suggest that Sachin Tendulkar invented what is easily one of the most extravagant strokes to be essayed ever.

Tendulkar had first executed it in Bloemfontein in 2001 and then did it again during the 2003 World Cup encounter against Pakistan at Centurion. India were up against a competitive target and an even more competitive attack – Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar.

A motor-mouthed Akhtar steamed in and bowled a bouncer wide on the off-stump. A pumped up Tendulkar reached out for the delivery and cut it hard as the ball sailed over backward point for a six. As if taking a cue from his idol, Sehwag repeated the shot off Younis the next over as India got off to a breezy start.

Almost five years down the line – in January 2008 --Tendulkar played a similar stroke in a Test match against Australia but with a touch of finesse. The venue was WACA, the fastest cricket pitch on earth, and Brett Lee, one of the quickest at that point in time, was rifling in his thunderbolts.

India were 104/2 when Tendulkar arched his body as if to evade a Lee bouncer but in a show of great presence of mind, guided the ball to third-man fence, presenting the full face of the bat. Lee flashed a wry smile while the commentators were at a loss to describe the shot.

Mark Nicholas asked his co-commentators – Ian Healy and Michael Slater – ‘what sort of shot was that?’ It was only much later that it came to be known as the ramp shot but between that uppercut at Centurion and the ramp shot at the WACA lay the story of metamorphosis of Tendulkar’s batsmanship.  

Tendulkar, the ‘boy wonder’, entered our psyche as a 16-year-old in an explosive fashion against Pakistan. It was Tendulkar’s debut international series but the way he hammered the likes of Abdul Qadir and Mushtaq Ahmed, albeit in a practice match, belied his age and experience.

Possessing a mind that knew no fear and an approach that was unhindered, he cared little for bowlers’ reputations. Fierce pulls, lofted straight drives, booming hits through the cover region, rasping cuts past point and forceful flicks off the pads delighted millions of his followers and left bowlers all over the world in utter despair for a decade or so after his debut in 1989.

This was a phase when Tendulkar was at his dominant best, decimating attacks and redefining batsmanship. From Old Trafford to WACA to SCG to Wanderers, the right-hander showed he was cut from a different cloth. It was also a phase when he had to wage lone battles, sometimes successfully but more often in vain.

The triumphant Desert Storm in Sharjah and the innings of 136 in a heart-breaking loss to Pakistan in the Chennai Test are classic examples. He might have been the batting ‘God’ for his legion of fans but he wasn’t without his limitations in a team game.

That was until Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag developed into match-winners. The quartet, which along with Tendulkar heralded a golden age of Indian batting, reduced the burden on the Mumbaikar.

That brought about a significant change in his batting style. From a destroyer of attacks, he became a great accumulator of runs. Occasionally, he would launch into a blistering attack but by and large, he had cut down on shots that placed too much stress on his battered body.

While Tendulkar had to sacrifice some strokes, he invented a few others to keep himself relevant. The advancing age forced Tendulkar to place more importance on conserving energy to extend his stay at the crease but not at the cost of his impressive strike rate in either format of the game.

So, the fierce cut was replaced by the last-minute glide past backward point, the slog sweep made way for the fine paddle and the energy-consuming hard slash or pull off a rising delivery gave way to a more nuanced steer over wicketkeeper’s head.

Just when he had found out a way to keep going, a tennis elbow threatened to end his already imperious career. It was perhaps his lowest period when calls for his retirement grew strident. After going through a surgery on his elbow, Tendulkar returned to take his rightful place in the side and enjoyed one of his most productive phases from late 2007 to 2011.

He won the ICC Cricketer of the Year award in 2010, produced two near double-century efforts in ODIs (163 n.o. against New Zealand in March 2009 and 175 against Australia in Nov 2009) before becoming the first batsman to notch up 200 in an ODI match (against South Africa in 2010 at Gwalior). His stupendous run culminated into India’s World Cup triumph in Mumbai in 2011.

It has been one big struggle for the little master since that epochal victory but as he prepares for his final Test at his home ground, one hopes Tendulkar turns the clock back for one final time.