The Sachin Swan Song-The Change of Guard!

The "unthinkable" but inevitable thing is finally happening in Indian Cricket. Sachin "The God" Tendulkar is finally retiring from all forms of cricket after serving the game and his country for more than 24 years. An entertainer, a crowd puller, the world over and a wonderful ambassador of Cricket in general and Indian cricket in particular, the master batsman would play his 200th and final Test at his home ground of Wankhede in Mumbai against the visiting West Indian side beginning the 14th of November 2013.

Sachin "The God" Tendulkar

Team India has been in a transitional phase and with the retirement of Tendulkar, it would have players who would have played less than 20 odd tests, barring the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. I intend to dedicate my next post on Sachin, so today, the post would be about the gradual change of guard that is taking place within the Indian cricket team.

Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami

The first test played between India and West Indies at the historical Eden Gardens in Kolkata generated immense "Sachin-mania" but Tendulkar's final swan song in the City of Joy was overshadowed by the performances by two Indian debutants, Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami backed by a power packed all round performance by Ravichandran Ashwin. The cases of the two men who made their debuts for India, could not have been more different.

The winning blow

The pedigree and talent of the stylish Rohit Sharma was never in doubt, though his temperament was,  and his debut was long over due as he was picked for the Indian cricket test squad as far as the year 2008 but could not play because of an unfortunate pre-match injury. The new designated Sultan of Swing, fast bowler Mohammed Shami, on the other hand was more of a surprise selection, although he was picked in the test squad after a decent showing against the Aussies in the preceding 7 match ODI series, he was not an automatic choice for the Kolkata test. The fact that he plays for Bengal and the Eden Gardens is his home ground could have been the clincher. The rest as they say is history. Rohit slammed a wonderful 177 and Shami picked up 9 wickets including 5 in the second innings to lit up Sachin's 199th test and condemned the West Indies to an innings defeat with in 3 days.

Sachin-The bowler

Though the Eden crowd would have been disappointed by their "God" not scoring runs (the fact that he got his 46th test wicket while bowling might have acted as a bit of a sweetener) they would have gone home reassured that the future of Indian cricket is in safe hands with the enigmatic captain cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni at the helm, overseeing a change of guard and young players stepping in to fill the shoes of the greats like Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. But the shoes of the greatest among them all, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar, would be too big to fill...

The last hurrah??

In the mean time let us all wish that the little maestro entertains all for the final time in his last hurrah at the place where it all started........Cometh 14th November2013! Cometh The Final Sachin Swan Song!