What made Sachin Tendulkar such a great player

Cricket has undergone what can only be described as a revolution. From the long drawn out test series of old, the attention now is all on the T20 format. The country that embraced this format more than any other was India with the IPL now being the most-attended cricket league in the world. The IPL has seen a new interest in cricket with younger generations now getting involved. The faster-paced version of the game makes it popular for this looking to wager and this all adds to the thrill of what the IPL offers.

The thing is though, that even before the IPL reinvented cricket, there were still some great players. These were great players who could fill stadiums as people watched in awe. One such player was the Indian legend, Sachin Tendulkar.

The God of cricket

For a player to be given such a name, you’d expect something a little special. Alongside being known as the God of cricket, Tendulkar was also known as the ‘Master Blaster’. Both names give a little insight into what this cricketing legend achieved during over two decades of playing. Tendulkar isn’t known for one-off acts of genius: he is known for consistently achieving greatness in the game.

 

No matter who he was facing the smart money would always be on Tendulkar amassing a century. He did this against every test playing nation that he faced. He ended his career with a host of records to his name and having secured his place in the sporting history books.

100 centuries to his name

Achieving a century in test cricket is one heck of an achievement. To do it more than 100 times is somewhat miraculous. Yet that is what Tendulkar did. Not content with hitting 100 runs, he became the first cricketer to hit 200 in a one day international. It is fair to say that this mammoth achievement was his greatest innings ever. Given the other successes that he experienced, this is not something said lightly.

Tendulkar racked up an astonishing 34,357 runs in his career. While all were spectacular, some of more worthy of recalling than others. Fans will always be in awe of when India was chasing Australia’s 350. Tendulkar took matters into his own hands and pulled back 175 of those runs all by himself. Just one of many innings that will be remembered forever.

Destroying the best bowlers

Tendulkar set himself apart from other batting greats. His straight drive, square drive, uppercut, and back foot punch are all exceptionally brilliant and all capable of bringing the world’s best bowlers to their knees in frustration. With over 20 years in the game, Tendulkar faced the most famous bowlers of all time and every time he came of better.

Even looking back at when Tendulkar first got going at the age of 16 he was a force to be reckoned with. His very first match saw him up against Pakistan’s finest. With bowling attacks that could destroy a whole lineup, Tendulkar stood proud and showed the cricket world what was to come.

The downside of brilliance

Cricketers, just like other sportsmen, are professional athletes and the same is true of Tendulkar. The price that he paid for his playing prowess was a string of injuries. He experienced more than his fair share of broken fingers, broken toes, hamstring injuries, and back problems. There was, however, one injury that posed more of a risk than all of the others combined.

In 2005, Tendulkar was suffering from tennis elbow and the surgery that followed left many doubting that he would play again,

The resilience of a legend

What makes a cricketer great is their resilience. Their ability to bounce back no matter what. Tendulkar achieved here by returning to the game when everyone thought his career was done. Four and a half months after surgery, he was still struggling to function let alone play a completive game.

Tendulkar worked tirelessly to mount his comeback and what he did was completely reinvent himself as a player. He came back as an even better and even stronger player, long after everyone had written him off.