Former Indian Selector Saba Karim Explains Why Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid & VVS Laxman Struggled In T20 Cricket
Published - 17 Mar 2022, 11:07 AM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 01:05 AM
Former Indian selector Saba Karim has seen the fab four of the Indian cricket team almost throughout their careers. He has also played with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. They were the batting pillars of the Indian cricket team throughout the 90s and the early 2000s. They succeeded in Test and ODI cricket but failed to conquer T20 cricket.
The IPL started in 2008 with all the players nearing the end of their international careers. In its first season, 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.
IPL Came A Little Late In Their Careers: Saba Karim
Saba Karim while talking to Khelneeti, explained why the Fab four failed at playing the format. Barring Sachin Tendulkar, no one really capitalised snd scored successfully in the IPL. Tendulkar is the only one among them to score an IPL century in 2011.
“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.
Sachin Tendulkar among these players has the best record in the IPL. 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. He even won the Orange Cap in 2010 scoring 618 runs that season.
As it turned out, the face of Indian cricket in T20 format was changed by MS Dhoni. After he won the maiden T20 World Cup title. The BCCI started the IPL in 2008 from where Indian cricket never looked back. He will be leading CSK in IPL 2022. He has won four titles with CSK and this will probably be his last IPL season.
