Indian team for the Sri Lanka tour have been announced and the biggest name that is missing from it is that of legendary batsman Sachin Tendulkar. It was expected that the batting maestro will give the series a miss. Sachin for long has been a bit choosy about his involvement in the one-day tournaments to prolong his career in Test matches. Sachin did play in the Asia Cup and the one-day triangular series in Australia, but has been avoiding bilateral series in the past, like the one against West Indies.

The decision of him opting out of the series does make sense keeping in mind the 10 Test matches that India will be playing in the recent future. India’s one-day squad looks solid even without the Little Master and their performance against Sri Lanka in particular has been good.

There have been talks that Sachin should hang his boots from international cricket, after all he has achieved everything that a batsman could ever hope for. But Sachin has different ideas and going by the recent events, India cannot afford to lose his services especially from Test matches.

Here are some of the reasons why Sachin should continue batting for India in white colours.

Sachin’s presence itself makes a lot of difference: Sachin is the greatest batsmen of all time and his presence on the field can give any team jitters. He has been an influential character since the past two decades and has been the flag-bearer for India since long. He is still focused and his hunger remains the same. His heights are incomparable and India can’t afford to lose him at this time, when the team is in the rebuilding process.

With Dravid and Ganguly gone and Laxman on his fag end of his career, India need Sachin to stay: Rahul Dravid recently retired from international cricket and has joined his long-time friend Sourav Ganguly off the field. There are only two members remaining from the fabulous four of Indian team and one of them and VVS Laxman, is also nearing his end. Sachin is still fit and has it in him to play for another couple of years. It is a good idea to infuse new blood in the team, but it is equally important to have senior players along with them. Let India find replacement for Dravid and Ganguly and only then they should think about Sachin’s retirement.

Sachin has to be there to nurture young kids: Sachin has been the most influential cricketer from India and he is a perfect role model for thousands of young cricketers not only in India but around the world. India is going through a rebuilding phase and they need Sachin to be in the dressing room to groom the young players. People like Sehwag and Gambhir have always credited Sachin for the confidence that they got from him when they first walked into the Indian team and the coming players need the same confidence from the great man.

Young Indian batsmen are struggling to perform and that doubles Sachin’s importance: The India A tour to West Indies exposed some of the upcoming batsmen from India. Rohit has always been termed as the next big thing for Indian batting struggled the most scoring only 145 runs at an average of 24 against an ordinary West Indies A attack. Ajinkya Rahane had a wonderful IPL and people saw all the qualities in him to be successful at the Test arena ended with an average of 10. Only Virat Kohli has proved himself till now and nobody looks like filling in the huge gap that the team has after Dravid’s retirement.

By Gaurav Jha
Indian Sports News Network