Nothing can beat cricket, right? Neither a Sania Mirza nor a Raghavendra Sing Rathore, or a Narain Karthikeyan.

The five-month absence of Sachin Tendulkar from competitive cricket due to elbow surgery, gave his fans sleepless nights.

Despite doubts on whether the hero would eventually return or just retire, the cricket-mad nation stood firmly behind him.

On October 25 in Nagpur, when the batting genius finally turned up for the first one-dayer against Sri Lanka, he looked unstoppable, powering India to a 152-run victory by top-scoring with 93.

Not only this, in the second Test against Sri Lanka in New Delhi, the master blaster raced past the 18-year-old world record held by the legendary Sunil Gavaskar. Scoring his 35th ton to become the highest century-maker in the history of Test cricket, Sachin dispelled the remaining doubts, if any, in the minds of his critics.

The Indian cricket institution welcomed Tendulkar's comeback. Some even suggested the Chappell-Ganguly spat would have never happened if he had been around.