What If.. Sachin Tendulkar never played after the Tennis Elbow??
Tendulkar scored 100 international centuries [PC: Twitter]
The name Sachin Tendulkar needs no introduction. In a country like India where cricket is nothing short of a religion, Sachin is worshipped as a God.
Well there are more than one reasons for the cricket crazy nation to shower such a magnitude of love on Tendulkar. He has carried the burden of the nation's dream and hope for more than two decades. Although he had the likes of Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxaman and later on Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni to share the responsibilities, there was a time when India’s performance meant a one man show, i.e. Sachin Tendulkar.
In spite of being regarded as the God, there were mere human concerns of injuries and dips in form that plagued the career of the Great man. But probably the biggest USP of the man was surviving through all these and yet have a career as long as 24 years.
One of the biggest woes of Sachin’s career was the Tennis Elbow injury that troubled him in 2004. Even being plagued with injury he continued to play till 2005 before he decided to get operated and took a temporary leave from the action. It took him a year and half to undergo full recovery and return to action again in 2006.
Often Sachin himself has said that during the injury he thought his playing days were over and about hanging up his gloves. So, What if…. Sachin Tendulkar never returned from the injury?
What if he never played cricket again?
35 Test Centuries
Sachin is the 5th highest century getter in Test Cricket. In India also he is the second highest century scorer after Rahul Dravid (36).
10,323 Test Runs
Sachin is the 12th highest run scorer in Test cricket history. The list is topped by Ricky Ponting (13,378). For India the top spot belongs to Rahul Dravid (13,288), Sachin is at second position.
38 ODI Centuries
He is the second highest century scorer in ODI cricket with 38 centuries to his name. The first position now belongs to Virat Kohli with 43 centuries.
13,909 ODI Runs
Sachin turned out to be the second highest run scorer in ODIs after Kumar Sangakkara (14234).
73 Career Hundreds
Tendulkar walking out to bat
While at his peak, fans hoped that Sachin would achieve 100 international centuries in his career. But because of his injury he had to stop at 73.
24,232 International career runs
Due to the injury Sachin just fell short of 25,000 international career runs.
No World Cup
Tendulkar posing with the World Cup trophy
In spite of being one of the greatest batters in the history of Indian cricket Sachin Tendulkar could not lay his hands on the coveted World Cup trophy. He played in 4 World Cups- 1992, 1996, 1999 and 2003 but did not manage to win any of them.
Sachin Missed the IPL
Sachin Tendulkar missed the IPL as he had to hang up his gloves in 2005 and the tournament started in 2008. But he took on the job of mentoring the Mumbai Indians team in the tournament.
One injury and one decision made us witness such wonderful things from a great player. If he would have retired after the injury many records might not have belonged to Sachin. So, just think, would you be calling him the God still without all the records to glorify an already great career.
Also Read: What If Tim Paine had the review three years ago ?
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