Sanjay Manjrekar believes that India was 'too dependent' on Sachin Tendulkar in the 90s

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar discussed the dependence of the Indian cricket team on Sachin Tendulkar back in the 90s. Manjrekar was Live on Instagram with Ravichandran Ashwin as they looked back at India’s semi-final defeat to Sri Lanka in the 1996 World Cup.

Sachin Tendulkar’s former Mumbai and India teammate claims the national team back then was too dependent on the Master Blaster because of his consistency and his ability to dominate good bowling attacks.

“Unfortunately, by 96/97, the team was really too dependent on (Sachin) Tendulkar. Because, you know, he was damn consistent. And he was India’s first batsman who was able to dominate and hit good balls for runs,” Sanjay Manjrekar said.

“Until then, India was about defensive batting and putting the bad balls away, like Sunil Gavaskar. A couple of sessions of giving respect to the bowler and then, you know, as they tire out, you get a loose ball and you score off it. Sachin would hit a good ball from a quality bowler on the up for four,” the Mumbai batsman added.

Sachin Tendulkar and the hallmark of a great batsman

Manjrekar went on to say that Sachin Tendulkar’s greatness came to the fore at that time simply because of how rare his failures were. According to the cricketer-turned-commentator, Sachin Tendulkar’s ability to regularly churn out runs were the hallmark of a great batsman.

“Sachin’s greatness at that time was that his failures were so rare and right through his career. That is a hallmark of a great batsman. Sachin getting out was a very rare thing,” Manjrekar told Ashwin.

Sanjay Manjrekar also discussed how Sachin Tendulkar broke into the Indian cricket team at a very young age, and wasted no time to show how special he truly was. In Manjrekar’s own words, the team knew that Sachin Tendulkar was in a different league altogether, right from a very young age.

“Sachin Tendulkar the batsman made his debut in 89. In just about a year… he got an 80 in New Zealand, he got his first hundred in England and by 91/92, the world was looking at him as a world class player. The age was always a factor, just 17 years old. And the way he was dominating quality attacks. For us in the team, there was no doubt that this guy was in a different league,” Manjrekar said.