In the pantheon of greats to have played the game, there will be run-makers from whose bats, rained runs; didn’t produce them. There’s the great WG Grace. A gentleman whose surname mirrored his personality. There’s Sir Sunny Gavaskar. Here was a legend, who at his pomp ensured the hostility of fast bowlers could never cloud India’s spirit on the 22 yards because it was warm and sunny for as long as the Mumbai-born icon stayed in the middle. Kindly forget not there’s also the don of batting called Bradman, a name synonymous with the word batsman itself. Born in Australia to delight the world but make the English suffer; Bradman peaked in a way no other batter has, thus far in the game, and none ever may. An average of 99 should itself convey something to storekeepers of memories and record books otherwise inflated with stats galore. And how could we not spend time, precious that it may be, on batters just as precious as the game itself?
Wannabe hipsters might never know, not that they can’t discard their love for frivolous to appreciate a diamond called Wally Hammond. Hailing from the land of Pink Floyd, Hammond blasted a personal best Test score of 336 (not out), besides stroking- with panache and power- 7200 plus Test runs and did you know, over 50,000 first class runs? How can you ever not rate Lara or Sangakkara.
Two Prince’s, one from Trinidad and the other, from Sri Lanka; both as elegant as they were focused in the middle who still stand next to towering numbers that could cause vertigo to anyone who dare tries to undermine them. No other batter has hit triple hundreds with the consistency and sheer lust for batting as Lara and no other Sri Lankan has, thus far, combined great powers of concentration with pure elegance other than Sangakkara.
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And when we, mortals, who live for cricket and often loathe our ordinary lives, get done with these icons, we realise we simply haven’t spent enough time on a quartet. The legends of the game in the form of Victor Trumper, Hanif Mohammad, Sir Vivian Richards or Sir Gary Sobers- iconic names whose very mention in any gallery or walkway where cricket is spoken of with much interest can further bolster the sport’s appeal.
And when we are done glancing through each of these names who have entertained as much as they have inspired, we cast our mind on the one name that stands in a league of its own. Unsullied by the changing vagaries of time and perhaps lapses in judgment that afford even the not-so-extraordinary the expensive veneer of ‘greatness’. A word so easily thrown around nowadays, isn’t it? But sensibility dictates, it may be easy to construct a skyscraper but might not be all that easy to build the tallest one. Yes, one that has been cemented by greatness and greatness alone. And that monument in cricket’s wide galaxy is Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. The Indian cricketer is, arguably speaking, not just the brightest star in the sporting galaxy but perhaps the entire solar system. And yes, the answer to a very relevant query- that which Indian batsman has the most runs against Australia?
Enough said, let us look at the numbers:
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Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI Record against Australia
Matches 71
Runs 3077
Highest score 175
Average 44.5
Strike Rate 84.7
Fifties 15
Centuries 9
Boundaries 330
Sachin Tendulkar’s Test record against Australia
Matches 39
Runs 3630
Average 55
Centuries 11 (51 overall in the format)
Fifties 16 (68 overall in the format)
Highest Score 241 not out