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'Please come down to earth and get bowling': Sachin Tendulkar to India pacer on debut; 'I was really down'
Sachin Tendulkar always found different ways to motivate his India teammates, including this very unique approach.
The great Sachin Tendulkar has always been an inspiration for the entire cricket-crazy nation of India and his ways have always rubbed off in the right way. Through his 25-year-long career, Tendulkar made the transition from being the junior-most member of the team to a legend. The likes of Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ravichandran Ashwin – all of whom made their India debut when Tendulkar was at his peak – are still going strong, but at the same time, there've been a few who faded along the way. One such example is speedster Varun Aaron, who recently announced his retirement from red-ball cricket at the end of Jharkhand's Ranji Trophy 2023/24 campaign.
Aaron, a tearaway pacer who first grabbed headlines in 2008 for his raw pace, couldn't play for India as much as he would have loved to but had his time with the Indian cricket team. He made his Test debut for India against West Indies in November of 2011, where after a lacklustre start, Aaron ended up picking three wickets… all thanks to Tendulkar, even if it required the Master Blaster to show some tough love.
"We were playing at the Wankhede Stadium. It was a really flat wicket, and the West Indies were 500 something for four. And I was really down. I was 21 years old and had never bowled 21 overs without a wicket. Sachin Tendulkar was standing at mid-off, he looked at me and asked, 'why are you looking so down?' I was like, you know what, Paaji, I've never bowled 21 overs for no wickets. I can't believe this is happening on my debut. He's like, come here. We stopped mid-over and he said, 'Do you know I waited 22 years for my first World Cup Trophy? So you can wait 21 overs for your first wicket, there's no problem with that. Please come down to earth and get bowling," Aaron said in an interview with the BCCI.
And that's when everything made sense to Aaron. After going three spells without a wicket, the speedster dismissed the well-set Darren Bravo for 166, getting him to edge to captain MS Dhoni. In a span of the next four overs, Aaron cleaned up Charlton Baugh and then removed Darren Sammy to trigger a mini-West Indian collapse, who from 518/4, got all out for 590. It was the same drawn Wankhede Test in which Ravi Rampaul dismissed Tendulkar for 94, but as Aaron mentioned, Tendulkar to him, in that game, was more than just his batting.
Tendulkar's advice lit a bulb in Aaron's mind
"I was like, Man, seriously, that makes so much sense. The very next ball, I got Darren Bravo (166) out, caught behind. Then got two other wickets - Carlton Baugh and Daren Sammy. And that just changed my debut. Just a few words from Sachin Tendulkar. I had also induced an edge off Marlon Samuels, but it was dropped," Aaron added.
"I was bowling flat out, gas out in my 26th over. If I had gotten that wicket, you never know, I would've gotten one more over from MS Dhoni and may be a fifer as well. It was just a great spell inspired by the great Sachin Tendulkar. And it just shows you that these very small things can actually change careers, change a debut for somebody."
Unfortunately, injuries cut short what had the promise to be an impressive career for India. Aaron played 9 Tests and 9 ODIs between 2011 and 2015 before falling behind in the pecking order and never to return. Aaron was set to feature for India in the 2011-12 tour of Australia before the recurrence of the back stress fracture sidelined him for over a year.
Furthermore, the emergence of Kohli as captain and the Indian team moving towards a fresher direction in giving the likes of Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma a longer run Tests. With time, Aaron's appearances were limited to First-Class and List A matches, as India became a potent force in fast bowling during the Kohli and Ravi Shastri era.
