Respect the legends.

Over decade and half fab four served the country to the best of their abilities. One of them retired 3 years back from International cricket who Is still remained most successful captain of India and that is Sourav Ganguly. It's been 3 years, Team India failed to find his replacement and now entire media and few so-called cricket experts who don’t even stand near to these legends, talking about axing Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. 

I think these former cricketers who have become experts on TV, at times behaves like supreme authority and talks rubbish about the legends. Some of these cricketers must introspect their records. Talking about legendary trio, I think there is lot of cricket left in them and they must not retire under pressure. Look at Sachin Tendulkar, he went through lean patch between 2005 and 2007, but made grand re-entry on cricket field and haven’t looked back since. He scored first ever double century in One-Day Internationals after his re-entry and he’s been playing best cricket of his life since 2007. Although, he has not scored test century in last 1 year but scoring runs consistently with healthy average and still contributes heavily to the team. Tendulkar is necessary for Team India because he play dual role of player as well as mentor.

Talking about Rahul Dravid, one must not forget that he was the highest test run scorer in 2011 calendar year. He scored 6 centuries last year and has been in sub-lime form. Not to forget he went through lean patch in 2009-10 season but got among runs last year. He was the most successful player on that disastrous tour of England with 3 centuries to his credit in testing conditions. Moreover, he opened the batting for the sake of team’s cause. He is a great team-man and always lived upto the expectations of the team. There is lot of talk about his dismissals in the ongoing series, where ball gone between his bat and pad quite often in the ongoing series and crashed into the stumps, but one must not forget that he is having this technical flaw right through his career and in-coming deliveries always troubled him, so it’s not new to Dravid. It only came into lime-light when team is not doing well overseas. But Rahul is still scoring runs. He is the only batsmen in Team India, whose overseas average is better than his home average. Do not forget that he is second highest run-getter in test cricket after Sachin Tendulkar with more than 13000 runs to his credit with 36 centuries. Rahul is still going strong and youngsters in the team can learn a lot about batting from this great wall.

What to say about VVS Laxman, man is known as ‘God of Crisis’ in Indian cricket. In last test series against West Indies he scored brilliant century (176*). This wrist magician has bailed out Team India India from many crisis situation. In his debut test against South Africa in 1997, he bailed out India from trouble with brilliant half-century. He did fantastic partnership with Anil Kumble and helped India to win that test match from hope less position. I think it is unfortunate that touch player like Laxman don’t have lot of centuries to show but he has scored 17 hundreds and that too batting at No.6 position where he didn’t get much support from the other end. Had he batted up the order I believe, he would have easily ended with more than 30 hundreds. But he never complained about his batting order and did his best for the team and won many matches for India from hopeless situations. After Sachin Tendulkar, he is the biggest enemy of Australian bowlers. In current series things are not going well for him but I am damn sure, this lean patch will get over very soon.It is VVS Laxman who scored brilliant 96 against South Africa last year at Durban, which helped Team India winning the test match. So, it is wrong to say that Laxman is burden for the team. If we look at his career in last decade starting 2001, he hasn’t hit lean patch. He has failed in only two series in last decade. So, Laxman is still very special.

I feel, we must respect these legends and have to back them till the time they don’t decide to retire. I feel, trio of Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman has lot of cricket left in them and they have lot to offer. Cricket is a team game and 3 players can’t win you matches. It is upto all 11 players to put up combined effort to win matches. Don’t forget, it is Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman have given us lot of enjoyable moments in last decade and brought back smile on our faces which was non-existent in our cricketing history barring one or two incidences.