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Cricket Players'They tried a lot but…': Former BCCI selector on why Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman and Dravid struggled in IPL and T20s
While Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman achieved everything in ODIs and Tests, their T20 careers could never take off.
In 2007, when the Indian team for the inaugural T20 World Cup was announced, the star-studded trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid went missing from the list. All three had collectively decided that T20 cricket is a young man's game and that the team would be better off without them for the ICC tournament in South Africa. And in hindsight, the decision couldn’t have been more correct. As it turned out, India, led by the effervescent MS Dhoni created history and won the World Cup, which in turn, triggered the birth of a T20 revolution in India known as the IPL. (Also Read: Babar Azam misses Test double but goes past Virat Kohli, Don Bradman, Ricky Ponting to achieve phenomenal batting record)
While Tendulkar, Dravid, Ganguly and even VVS Laxman for that matter achieved everything in ODIs and Tests, their T20 careers could never take off. As it turns out, among the Fab 4, only Tendulkar played a sole T20I match for India. When the IPL debuted, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman were the marquee players, and appointed captains of Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers respectively.
Having said that, barring Tendulkar, none of the three batters could achieve much success in IPL or T20 cricket. Former BCCI national selector and ex-India wicketkeeper Saba Karim feels the reason behind the Fab 4 struggling in T20 cricket was the timing of the entire T20 revolution in India. All four were in their early 30s and with T20 cricket considered a young man’s game, Karim feels they just could not adjust to the taxing demands of the format.
"IPL came 2-3 years late in the careers of icon players. The track record of players like Sachin Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly has been brilliant in white-ball cricket. So, for them, it would have been easier for them to adjust to T20 cricket. I think they tried a lot, but since it was the last leg of their careers, it took time to adjust to T20s," Karim said on the YouTube show 'Khelneeti'.
Tendulkar by far has the most superior T20 stats. He played 78 IPL matches across six seasons for Mumbai Indians and scored 2334 runs at an average of 34.83 including 13 half-centuries and one century. At the age of 36, Tendulkar won the Orange Cap for scoring 618 runs at an average of over 47 in the third edition of the IPL in 2010.
The next best was Dravid. He played 89 matches, also across six seasons and tallied 2174 runs including 11 half-centuries. Starting off with RCB, Dravid moved to Rajasthan Royals in 2011 before finishing his career two years later. Ganguly played for KKR and Pune Warriors India and featured in 59 IPL matches, in which he scored 1349 runs with six half-centuries. Laxman featured in just 20 games and scored 282 runs.
