In a career spanning 24 years, Indian batting great Sachin Tendulkar played 200 Tests and 463 ODIs, scoring the world record number of runs (15921 in Tests and 18426 in ODIs) and centuries (51 in Tests and 49 in ODIs). He also holds the record for most runs, centuries, fifties in ICC Cricket World Cup and is the most capped player in Tests and ODIs.
But according to the legendary Kapil Dev, Tendulkar didn’t do justice to his talent as he couldn’t quite master the art of turning hundreds into double and triple tons.
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Notably, Sachin has 6 double hundreds in Test cricket but he is at No. 12 in the list which is headed by Don Bradman (12 double tons).
“Sachin had so much talent that I hadn’t seen it in anyone. He knew how to score hundreds but he never became a ruthless batsman. Sachin had everything in cricket. He knew how to score hundreds but didn’t know how to convert those hundreds into 200s &300s,” Kapil told former India cricketer and current women’s team head coach WV Raman in an interview on his Youtube channel.
The 1983 World Cup-winning skipper also feels the kind of talent Sachin had, he should have scored at least five triple centuries and 10 more double tons.
It is pertinent to mention here that Tendulkar doesn’t have a triple century to his name in the longest format. In fact, only two Indians – Virender Sehwag (2) and Karun Nair (1) – have smashed trip tons in Test cricket so far while Virat Kohli has most number of double hundreds (7) among Indians in the five-day game.
“Sachin should’ve made five triple centuries and another 10 double tons because he could hit fast bowlers and spinners for a boundary every over,” Kapil added.
Explaining the reasons behind Sachin Tendulkar’s fewer number of double centuries, Kapil opined that it has a lot to do with his Mumbai roots.
“Since he was from Mumbai they had a mindset of when you score a hundred make a line and start from zero again. And that’s where I said no, you are such a ruthless cricketer, bowlers should fear you. Sachin’s talent was par excellence. But after a scoring a hundred he used to take singles and didn’t become ruthless,” he remarked.
