‘Will bowl, will field, can bat’ – Sachin Tendulkar as a cricketer

In June 2017, Lalchand Rajput, head coach of Afghanistan said of 18-year-old leg-spinner Rashid Khan: “He is the new kid on the block. There are certain people who have got natural abilities, like Sachin who was born to rule cricket. This boy will rule the bowling. He is one of the pillars of Afghanistan cricket. He bowls with pace and batsmen find it difficult to pick him."

But we’re ahead of ourselves.

April 1998. Nehru Stadium, Kochi, feels like it’s bursting, with 100,000 spectators, way beyond capacity. It’s an ODI. Predictably devastating Adam Gilchrist hits 10 fours and a towering six. A tiny Indian who has played for the country for about eight years fancies his bowling arm.

He draws Steve Waugh out of his crease and takes the return catch, teases an ominous looking Michael Bevan forward and has him stumped, makes Darren Lehmann swing across, has him lbw and then draws another man forward to have him stumped, this time, 1.98 m high Tom Moody. He then entices Damien Martyn into lobbing toward fielder Srinath.

India win by 41 runs. Bowler Sachin Tendulkar is the Player of the Match.

Of Sachin’s 10 overs, one is a maiden - in the other nine, he concedes just 32 runs for his 5-wicket, match-winning haul.

Specialist Anil Kumble: 10 overs, 0 maidens, 51 runs, 1 wicket.

Fluke, eh? Sachin does it again.

October 1998, ODI in Dhaka. Sachin’s Player of the Match 9-over, 4-wicket haul concedes just 38 runs. For the pedantic, he has Steve Waugh c&b again. Earlier that day, Sachin had scored 46% of India’s runs.

In his essay ‘Bowler’s Delight’ in the book SACH: Genius Unplugged Anil Kumble wrote: “Such is his cricketing brain that I’m convinced he would have been a great player even without his batting! He...understood bowling like few did. Perhaps this understanding of the bowler’s craft enhanced his batsmanship as he seemed to be always aware of just what the bowler was thinking. Hence his legendary reputation as a batsman who could get the bowler to bowl where he...wanted.”

The master bowler shed light on a Sachin we think we know.

In ODIs?

• V South Africa, Nov 1993: Sachin’s brave final over conceded only 3 runs (to 6 that SA needed)
• V Sri Lanka, Feb 1994: 3 wickets for 43.
• V West Indies, Oct 1994: 3 for 36.
• V Pakistan, Jan 1998: 3 for 45.
• A mere 75 deliveries separate specialist Venkatesh Prasad from Sachin’s bowling career, yet Sachin had four 4-wicket hauls to Prasad’s three and two 5-wicket hauls to Prasad’s one.

And Tests?

January 1999: Sachin fooled Yousuf Youhana – twice – aside from the usually dangerous Inzamam-ul-Haq. Over those two innings, Sachin’s 3-wicket haul equalled specialist bowler Srinath’s.

February 2000: Sachin trapped not only Shaun Pollock but also high-calibre openers (Gary Kirsten, Herschelle Gibbs). In that 1^st innings, specialist Ajit Agarkar’s seven overs produced no wicket; Sachin’s five overs? Three wickets!

March 2001: Sachin nailed not just Shane Warne but also dangerous batsmen (Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist). In that 2^nd innings, specialist Zaheer Khan: 8 overs, 4 maidens, 30 runs, no wicket. Sachin: 11 overs, 3 maidens, 31 runs, three wickets.

Sachin was quite handy with the ball

VVS Laxman once told The Telegraph: “I called him a man with a golden arm. He’s a wicket-taking bowler. When he bowls, you can expect something to happen. He has variation. He can bowl medium pace, googly and leg-spin. He can turn the ball. His most potent delivery is his leg-spin and if the length is right, he can extract bounce.”

Sachin made up for his lack of pace, his relatively guerrilla line and length by using guile to bowl seam-up, to swing away, to make the ball rip out of the back of his hand.

Many commentators admitted that even when he didn’t get a wicket he’d made the ball talk in ways that veteran bowlers struggled to, on the same pitch.

Kumble was perhaps only half-joking when he said, "I used to be, wondering what to do with the next ball, how to turn it, etc. And there was Sachin. Handed the ball, he would just roll his arm over and turn a leg-break followed by a googly, both the same width, without seemingly a care."

Interestingly, 65% of Sachin’s (30 of 46 wickets) Test and 57% (88 of 154 wickets) of his ODI haul came on hostile ‘away’ grounds.

Some captains trusted his bowling arm while everyone else played it safe – preferring him with the pads on!

When he took the ball, he made it count. A pity that pain and multiple injuries precluded him taking it as often as he did the bat. In his twilight ODI years (2008-12) he bowled just 10 overs to the 518 he bowled in his prime (1994-98).

In his Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Lecture in 2013, Kumble graciously added: “I played 122 Tests alongside Sachin, I never threatened his place as a batsman but he threatened mine as a bowler.”

As if that wasn’t enough, fielder Sachin took 240 catches (106 in Tests, 134 in ODIs).

If you skied it vaguely in his direction even toward the bowler’s end, he’d make you pay. Session after session, game after game he stretched mind and body to bowl (and field), offering India the best chance of winning. Losses – and there were many – were not from his lack of effort.

Lesser batsmen have been guilty on two counts, protecting their ‘batting’ arms and fingers by bowling and fielding less faithfully...or not at all. Out in the middle, Sachin was so caught up, his excitement no less whether he was chewing his inner cheek as a cover fielder or fiddling with placements as a change bowler.

Again it’s April. Again an ODI in Nehru Stadium Kochi. But it’s now 2005. And the tiny Indian who still fancies his bowling arm has now played for 16 years. His tired fingers, wrists, and arms have been tested a tad more than most bowlers and fielders. He sees old friend Inzamam again, and bowls him. He then has Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi and Mohammed Hafeez caught. That cunning again and Mohammad Sami is c&b.

Sachin bowls 10 overs – as many as specialist Harbhajan Singh. Harbhajan: 0 maidens, 32 runs, no wicket. Sachin: 1 maiden, 50 runs, five wickets.

Look carefully at the footage of Sachin rejoicing. Not an ace bowler’s triumph or a novice’s shock at his luck, his laughter, his grin, his yell, his leap showed utter delight at what played out after the ball had left his fingers.

Sachin fanatics will have you believe that he can do no wrong – on or off the field. And we must leave them to it.

Sachin fans, on the other hand, will tell you that he isn’t perfect off the field any more than he was ever perfect on it. They’ll also insist that the tempered incandescence with which he loved and played the game as a batsman, bowler or fielder may remain unrivalled. What a shame that his shadow no longer falls gently on the grass as it first did in that memorable Asian winter of 1989.