As Tendulkar heads into his 5th tour of Australia and Dravid and Laxman venture into their 4th assignment there, one wonders how they have kept their fire and flash intact.
A cricketer’s life is too arduous to extend to middle-age. So imagine a 45-day tour of Australia that can reduce one’s playing years by half. Conversely, it could be the end line of a glittering career. As Sachin Tendulkar heads into his fifth tour of Australia and Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman venture into their fourth assignment there, one wonders how they have kept their fire and flash intact. This is certainly their last series Down Under although, as Dravid said in his speech at Bradman Oration, one can never be sure about Tendulkar.
Three Aussie generations have passed by since Tendulkar’s first tour of Australia in 1991-92. Fresh 23-year-olds, blasting out cold pace, have been thrown at him each time he has set foot there. Craig McDermott and Bruce Reid in the 1992 series, Glenn McGrath and Brett Lee in 1999, Andy Bichel and Jason Gillespie in 2003 and Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Clarke in 2007. Had India been playing Queensland on their current tour, he would’ve probably taken guard against Craig McDermott’s son, Alister McDermott.
Even as the Reids and the Bichels have aged gracefully and found alternate careers, the light of battle continues to burn brightly in India’s golden trinity and, lest forgotten, in Ricky Ponting too.
The three will have countless ‘Australia moments’ to recount after they finish. Dravid may not tire of demonstrating his winning shot in Adelaide (2003) that broke a 21-year drought. It was picture postcard moment in the country’s cricket history, for India hadn’t won a Test in Australia since 1981.
Laxman will probably narrate his Sydney odysseys: that sparkling 167 in 1999 and 178 four years later.
And Tendulkar, well…
When he stood on his toe, squirting covers and point, en route to that 114 at Perth in 1992, Allan Border said he’d just seen a weakness. A lesser player, Border believed, would score more double centuries. But not Tendulkar, so limitlessly talented, that he wouldn’t know what to do with his gifts. Seldom has an Australian captain showered such a gracious tribute on an opponent. But thought of Australia could also stir mixed emotions in Tendulkar. In the 1999 series, he’d to weather the fires all by himself. It was his worst assignment as captain but one of the finest as batsman.
He has more pleasant memories of the subsequent series.
Abandoning the cover-drive in Sydney (2003) during the course of a double-hundred, or making a bull-dog fight for 71 in Perth (2007) for India’s second win in Australia in more than 20 years.
It was birth of belief. South Africa and England are the two top teams that have beaten Australia in Australia, but it is the Indian team that had the template, courtesy the trio. This is their last stab at winning a rubber there. In fact, no Indian team has won a Test series there ever since contests began in 1947-48.
The challenge, despite the Aussies having a raw look about them, doesn’t get easier. James Pattinson and Peter Siddle are expected to put the Indian batting through the same inquisition as James Anderson and Stuart Broad did in England. Like always sharpness of their eyes, vigilance at slips and throwing arms from longer boundaries will be put to test. Truly, the game makes no concession to age.
Beating India in India remained Steve Waugh’s unfulfilled dream. In a month we will know if Tendulkar-Dravid-Laxman can write themselves a different end.
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