Should Tendulkar bat at 4 in ODI's?

[V Reddy]

Vish i dont think he was batting at 3 in the Australian test series in Australia was he though? im pretty sure it was A Chopra and Sehwag opening Tendulkar 3 Ganguly 4.. or Dravid 4 not sure..
But still look the greatest example would be his failure in the Tests and ODI series in our homesoil.. okay agreed that the pitches werent the fairest.. yet i saw that he made the same mistake over and over again.. and basically he didnt seem to change a thing about it.. and coming in early seem to just add more pressure on the rest of the team. and also i think he tried batting high up the order in the World Cup , again wasnt really sucessfull..
I think if you count him being Successful against Pakistan in pakistan , the pitches there dont have that great a deal of movement.. And i know his greater strength is against Spin.. so why not us the strength to advantage which in return helps the whole team ..

I am not at all talking about the recent series. I am talking the series when he opened i.e.,on or before 2002

 

[lord_of_darkness]

i think team selections / strategies should be based on recent and near past series really though..
I mean thats how it would work best when im playing 1stXI ,rep or club

 

[TendulkarFan]

I know Tendulkar is a very good opener and has scored so many hundreds while opening. But the truth is he has mellowed down a lot. To take advantage of the left-right combination, I'd have Ganguly-Sehwag and Tendulkar coming in at #3.

As a matter of fact, instead of changing the position to match his changed game, I want him to change his game to match the opener's slot, i.e. go back to his hard hitting ways. He should open and fire right from the start - when he used to do that, they almost always won.

He opens, plays a "mellowed" game and then figures out he's not fit enough to carry on.....same old pathetic crap over and over.

 

[TendulkarFan]

He is but i am talking from the team point of view. For me Tendulkar is more capable at 4 than Ganguly is at 4. While Opening, there isn't much diff between him and Ganguly and stats prove that too

Tendulkar is most beneficial at the opener's slot, but with his old batting style. His current style doesn't help anyone. He should stop playing Dravid's game.

 

[Raj123]

Tendulkar is most beneficial at the opener's slot, but with his old batting style. His current style doesn't help anyone. He should stop playing Dravid's game.

great! sachin goes back to his old ways, his scoring gets more inconsistent(although on his day he way tear the bowling apart). sehwag plays the same way, so there are more chances for both openers being back in the pavilion early. ganguly comes in at 4, faces pacers, more chances of him getting out, and india consistently loses 3 wickets early & is under pressure for the rest of the innings.

 

[steds]

When Tendulkar is on form it's extremely hard to get him out and he can score a lot of runs, but say Ganguly and Sehwag opened and batted 30 overs before Sehwag gets out, Dravid was #3 and he lasts 5 overs, Tendulkar bats no.4 and he comes in with 15 overs left. I think that wouldn't be using his remarkable talent well, considering he could be given the full 50 overs to demolish the attack.

 

[TendulkarFan]

great! sachin goes back to his old ways, his scoring gets more inconsistent(although on his day he way tear the bowling apart). sehwag plays the same way, so there are more chances for both openers being back in the pavilion early. ganguly comes in at 4, faces pacers, more chances of him getting out, and india consistently loses 3 wickets early & is under pressure for the rest of the innings.

Fact is, Tendulkar has always averaged 40+ regardless of the kind of game he has played. Fact is, he has scored 30+ one day hundreds playing an aggressive game. I would much rather see a 45(40) from him than 45(60) because there are other batsmen in the team that can help out if he fails.

When he used to play an aggressive game, India used to have a psychological edge while he was around. Now, that has disappeared. There is no psychological advantage attached to Tendulkar's presence at the crease. He has become just another batsman.

As for Sehwag, again, despite his aggressive style, he averages 33+. Not too shabby!

The situation you described is the worst case scenario. With the batsmen of Tendulkar's and Sehwag's class, I doubt we'll see that situation become the norm.

 

[NikhilN]

He should go with 3

 

[TendulkarFan]

When Tendulkar is on form it's extremely hard to get him out and he can score a lot of runs, but say Ganguly and Sehwag opened and batted 30 overs before Sehwag gets out, Dravid was #3 and he lasts 5 overs, Tendulkar bats no.4 and he comes in with 15 overs left. I think that wouldn't be using his remarkable talent well, considering he could be given the full 50 overs to demolish the attack.

I agree with you. Another thing to keep in mind is that Tendulkar, for whatever reason, hasn't shown the capability to bat full 50 overs. He doesn't last much longer past 30-35 overs. Best thing to do would be to have him blazing until he goes down.

 

[Deja moo]

Yuvraj Singh
Sachin Tendulkar
V Sehwag
S Ganguly
R Dravid
H Badani
M Kaif/R Powar

 

[Nate]

Yuvraj Singh
Sachin Tendulkar
V Sehwag
S Ganguly
R Dravid
H Badani
M Kaif/R Powar

thats an interesting choice...

 

[Richard]

I've done this one to death - try and find my best post on the matter IIM.
Good on Vish for creating a thread encouraging everyone to discuss the matter.