Tendulkar & Ganguly must open…

It’s madness not to let a man who has scored 11,731 of 14,568 runs (that’s more than 80 percent) in that position. Experimenting with him at No. 4 has backfired once already (he really struggled in England in 2003, remember?) and with the World Cup almost there, why push him around?

The case is strengthened now with Sourav Ganguly regaining form and opening the batting. Assuming Virender Sehwag is the other ‘obvious’ choice, the decision (and a hard one at that) needs to be made. Sehwag can still come down at six and play a Lance Klusener-like (or Mike Hussey, if need be) role. In fact, there are far too many things in favour of Ganguly-Tendulkar coming in as openers instead of Tendulkar-Sehwag or Ganguly-Sehwag. Let’s not even go the Ganguly-Gambhir route. That, for me, is a no-starter.

In Ganguly and Tendulkar, we have one of the best opening partnerships in ODIs ever. And with one already back in some form, the other can logically regain form and confidence in his favourite position. Not languishing at No. 4. While Gambhir is a good player and thoroughly deserves his place, he simply has to wait. And no, this is not an emotional appeal since this would be the last time Ganguly and Tendulkar play a World Cup. It’s simply because they are our best hope of a good start.

Over and over again.