Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly: Once in a lifetime partnership

Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly

The forcefulness and dominance of a cricketing team in any era, particularly in ODIs, has largely been dependent upon the opening pair of that team. Be it the Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes for the West Indies, Gilchrist and Hayden for the Aussies and Tendulkar and Ganguly for India.

Sure, a solid opening pair in bowling is equally important but I’m focusing on the batting aspects of the game here so no credit taken away from the bowlers here.

The role of an opening pair is inclined towards being the ‘backbone’ of a team, being strong regardless of the toughness of the match/series.

For bowlers I believe it’s easier to fightback, as compared to batsmen – opening batsmen at that. For instance, let’s recall the recent Ashes series, after following Australia 3-0 in the series, the next 2 Test matches were critical and all about ‘respect’ and ‘pride’. The key responsibility to get the team off to a good start was on the shoulders of Cook and Carberry.

In such a scenario, it’s easy to understand the mental toughness that a opening pair requires. Even though Cook and Carberry couldn’t put forward the performance that one expected from them, it’s without a doubt commendable for these 2 batsmen to show the courage that they showed in the ‘crisis’ situation for England.

The Gem For India

This article emphasizes on 2 great opening partners of India i.e. Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly.

One made his debut at the tender age of 16 and the other at the age of 18. One continued to be a part of the line-up without any worries and the other, was dropped after his very first series (Ganguly). But, as they say ‘destiny had some other plans’. Ganguly made his ’1st’ comeback to the team, in the 1996 tour vs England and quickly came into the limelight with a thunderous century – those cracking and crispy off drives are incomparable and still very much joyed in my memories.

Picture perfect off-drive from the ‘prince of Calcutta’

Health Streak, the former Zimbabwe bowler sums up Ganguly’s dominance on the off-side perfectly: “His offside has become so strong that unless he commits a mistake on his own, it is absolutely impossible to get him out in that region. A world class batsman, indeed.”

Tendulkar and Ganguly had the ability to take the game into their hands, at any time, any situation. If there’s one match I particular recall, it’s vs England in the 2007 Natwest Series, in which India were trailing England 3-2. In this match and in one of the earlier matches of the series, Ganguly and Tendulkar completely demolished the England bowling which had likes of Andrew Flintoff, James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Jon Lewis.

It was not the demolition that one enjoyed and recalls, it was the art of playing ‘proper’ cricketing strokes and getting the runs via the way of ‘demolition’, an art which the so called ‘T20 specialists’ lack. It’s not about blind-eye hitting, it’s about the quality of the strokes that matters.

Tendulkar and Ganguly complimented each other’s game and if there’s one aspect where they both were North and South, it’d have to be running. Tendulkar was always someone who looked for the quick singles and Ganguly on the contrary, liked to take the ‘easy singles’ and settle for singles instead of doubles but it was the solid understanding between these 2 players which overpowered their shortcomings.

What do the records say?

Without looking at the stats – what do you think? Who among these 2 will be having more runs then the other? Of course you’d say that it’s the maestro, the little master, the record-maker not breaker, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar but a ‘gentle’ NO, it’s the other – the prince of Calcutta, the ‘perfectionist’ of the off side, the born leader – Sourav Ganguly.

Credits to Soham Sarkhel for the stats

Since 1997 to 2007, a decade of India’s finest opening pair, Tendulkar scored 10511 runs, whereas Ganguly scored 500 runs more than Tendulkar and i.e. 11091. I’ve always been a stat-crazy cricket fan, records say the world to me and if this isn’t one of the most unique records out there, which is!

The credit for India’s success in ODIs I believe is largely to be credited to Tendulkar and Ganguly. The left-right combination of these two was very well versed. In fact, it was the consistent changes to the field that the opposition had to make, for this very left-right combination which allowed a sense of ‘calmness’ to their game.

Hence why, Tendulkar and Ganguly successfully hold the highest opening partnership record with 6,362 runs in 129 matches, which includes 20 century partnerships and 22 fifty runs stand.

TendGuly changed the face of Indian cricket

What next – can there be another TendGuly?

The future is what matters now, will the Indian team see the success that it witnessed during the TendGuly era, ever again? Will India produce another gem of an opening pair? As far as my views are concerned, there cannot be another TendGuly. If anything, there can surely be another ‘great’ opening pair for India or for any other country for that matter, but it wouldn’t be same as TendGuly.

No opener can play that cheeky shot over the keeper’s head for 4 and neither can another opener shimmy down the wicket to a left-arm spinners and hit him for a straight six – only TendGuly could do this.

Nowadays, 120-140 runs in the first 20 overs isn’t a sight to be shocked about, hell it’s not even par in T20 cricket, but what about in ODIs? I believe it’s still very much respectable to go at the run rate of 6 in ODIs, even during this era of T20 cricket.

Consider this, in the late 1990s and for the most part of 2000s, until when TendGuly played, on many occasions you’d recall them scoring 120 in the first 20 overs itself, giving the Indian team much needed stability that it required. This is the sole reason why the middle-order that played with these 2 were never in the limelight because they hardly ever gave anyone in the middle-order a chance to relapse the innings, it was a show of TendGuly, a show like no other.