Former skipper Rahul Dravid heaped praised on his ex-team mate Sachin Tendukar, who will bid adieu to the game after playing his 200th Test against the West Indies in Mumbai next month.
Former skipper Rahul Dravid heaped praised on his ex-team mate Sachin Tendukar, who will bid adieu to the game after playing his 200th Test against the West Indies in Mumbai next month. Dravid said it was irrelevant if Sachin comes up with big knocks or not in his final series but he surely deserves a good farewell. He said, “I just hope he really enjoys the last two games and enjoys his cricket irrespective of whether he scores or not because that is irrelevant. I hope he has a lot of fun and those two matches will be two great occasions. I just want to wish him all the best and say thank you for all that he has done for Indian cricket for the last 24 years. He is one player who has never let his standard come down. His love for cricket has been consistent from the age of 16 to even now at 40. I would like that he does well in his last two Tests and signs off with a good performance.”
40-year old Dravid, who made his Test debut when Sachin was a senior member, further added, “His family is also coming down so both these two Tests will be a big event. He has worked hard for so many years now so he deserves a good farewell. Everything is known about him. Probably he is the most written about cricketer of this generation and probably ever.”
Dravid said that it would be difficult for any international cricketer to get near to Tendulkar’s achievements. “I played a lot of cricket with Sachin. I have seen him since childhood. He has been with the Indian team for a long time and he is a great cricketer not only in India but what he is accomplished, his statistics, his performance is difficult to replicate,” he expressed.
When asked by the reporters that according to him who can get into Tendulkar’s shoes after his departure, Dravid said, “There are some good young talented players. When you look at what Virat (Kohli) has been able to do in one-day cricket and even in Test cricket, is quite exceptional. I think India’s one-day batting is good as I have ever seen it. It’s sensational the top six, seven they have at the moment. So just a question of some of these young guys being able to fill in. Look it is not going to be easy to fill those shoes. So you have got to give people time. Hopefully these young guys, you have got a Kohli or a (Rohit) Sharma, (Ajinkya) Rahane, (Suresh) Raina, so many of these young guys pushing for slots. It is going to be interesting to see which one of them can sort of hold onto a permanent slot for a while,” he said.
With Agencies inputs
