‘They tried hard’: Ex-BCCI selector on failure of top Indian players in IPL

When
the inaugural T20 World Cup was played in South Africa, India sent a young team
under the leadership of MS Dhoni while giving rest to senior cricketers Sachin
Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. It must be noted that the BCCI was
not initially interested to participate in cricket’s shortest format. It was
because of administrative compulsion that the BCCI was forced to send a team to
the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa. However, under a young leader with some
of the country’s top players missing the marquee event, India turned out to be
the unexpected champions. The format became hugely popular in India which saw
BCCI launching the Indian Premier League.

Though
India sent a young team that had won the tournament, a forgetful tournament
would have made us believe that the absence of the likes of Tendulkar, Dravid,
Ganguly and even VVS Laxman was the reasons for India’s poor outing. Among the
Fab 4, only Tendulkar played a sole T20I match for India. When the IPL started,
Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and Laxman were the marquee players, and they were
appointed captains of Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders, Royal Challengers
Bangalore and Deccan Chargers respectively, given their stature in Indian
cricket.

Fab 4 struggled in IPL

But in reality, barring
Tendulkar, none of them could achieve much success in IPL or T20 cricket.

Talking
about the possible reason for their failures, former BCCI national selector and
ex-India wicketkeeper Saba Karim said 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.

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“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’.

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Among
the Fab 4, 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.

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The
next batter who came close to Tendulkar was Dravid. He played 89 matches, also
across six seasons and tallied 2174 runs including 11 half-centuries. Ganguly
played for KKR and Pune Warriors India and was 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.