http://salilb.blogspot.com/2006/02/sachin-and-his-last-25-tests-time-has.html
The million dollar question to ask is - can his replacement average 47-dot-something over a period of 24 tests - playing against minnows or no minnows?
It's very clear and is there for everyone to see that he's a less effective batsman than he was 5 years ago, but still he isn't crap. Everyone would love to replace Sachin at 33 with Sachin at 28, but is Mohd. Kaif at 25 good enough to replace Sachin at 33?
The answer is we will not know unless we see it. I still would think that the answer is no. We have 2 options - drop Sachin at 33 and try Kaif at 25, or keep on trying Sachin at 33 and see who can get closer to Sachin at 28. Currently they are trying the latter option with some justification. Let's see where it leads for some more time. The decision they have to make is what should this time be. I would say World Cup 2007.
And I really don't see any point, getting into Sachin's shoes, that he should play any ODIs after he returns from the Caribbean in 2007. He has got nothing left to achieve in ODIs.
2 comments:
Mate,
What i am saying is people like Kaif and Raina who we know have potential should be give chances.
As far as comparison is concerned, a Kaif will never get close to a Sachin. He will not score those 200s and 190s which sachin has done. However, when he comes in at 10/2 he might score 60-70 runs to take us out of trouble. This i think is more important than scoring 200 when team is already in a great position.
Having Sachin in the team has so many other advantages than just his batting. For one, the opposition has to spend half their firepower on planning how to get him out, because he does not have any weakness, which can be exploited.
The statistics mentioned in the article above may be true, but the comments made on them seemed to be made to fit the author's comments.
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