India set to extend Tendulkar wait

Dhoni wants top-order rotation to continue in tri-series.

PERTH: India looked set to extend star batsman Sachin Tendulkar’s long wait for his elusive 100th international century by resisting calls to scrap their top-order rotation policy.

Captain MS Dhoni would not confirm if Tendulkar would be rested for Sunday’s tri-series game against Australia but said that India would continue to drop one of their top three to make space for Rohit Sharma in the middle order.

In Wednesday’s four-wicket win over Sri Lanka, the ‘Little Master’ cruised to 48 but then played on, making it an agonising 27 innings that he has been stuck on 99 centuries — a wait that goes back to last March.

“You will have to wait and watch,” said Dhoni. “I’ll look to rotate as I want Rohit to play as many games as possible. As of now, we’ll still look to rotate the openers.”

Opener Virender Sehwag missed the opening tri-series game against Australia at the MCG on Sunday, while Gautam Gambhir was rested in Perth on Wednesday, suggesting Tendulkar was next in line for the drop.

Former captain Sunil Gavaskar called for Tendulkar to play in every match, insisting that players should only be replaced in the side due to poor form.

“I think Tendulkar should be playing in all matches,” Gavaskar told NDTV. “If you want to use a rotation policy, then it should be used for all the players.”

Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram echoed Gavaskar’s views albeit for a different reason.

“I do not think it is a good idea for teams like India or Pakistan to rotate players in a series as big as this,” Akram wrote in the Times of India. “We do not have such a culture.

“In a series like this, the hosts can afford to experiment a little, but not a visiting side.”

Published in The Express Tribune, February 10^th, 2012.