Opener Tendulkar will pilot Team India

Greg Chappell’s expression of regret over handling of the batting order in the last World Cup comes four years too late.

Between the coach and skipper Dravid they got the order horribly wrong and in the process managed to kill the enthusiasm of the country’s finest batsman and world cricket’s greatest run-scorer. Yes, Sachin Tendulkar was thought to have been sulking in the Caribbean leading to disastrous consequences for Team India.

How on earth the think tank imagined Robin Uthappa would sparkle in the role of lead striker in the first set of field placement restriction overs, at the expense of a genius who had adapted masterfully to the ODI opening slot 13 years earlier, will remain one of Indian cricket’s mysteries.

Uthappa is a crass striker who could succeed in perfect conditions in which the ball comes on to the bat. Sachin is a class performer who adapts to any situation and conditions.

The one big reason why Team India are being rated such hot favourites for World Cup 2011 is there is bound to be greater harmony and balance in a batting order headed by Sachin and Sehwag, who have melded into one of the great ODI opening combinations for the country after Sachin and Sourav. It’s a fact that Sachin, who first opened for India in an ODI after Navjot Sidhu sprained his neck in Auckland in 1994, is the country’s, as well as world cricket’s, most successful batsman.

If he is up there at the top of the order there is always the hope of stability to the innings even if his swashbuckling partner Sehwag perishes to the hazards of launching a brazen offensive against the new ball. And then there is the chance Sachin will bat through to anchor the innings as he did so memorably in an ODI last season in which he became the first to breach the 200-run barrier.

Even given his amazing enthusiasm, commitment and stamina to stay in the game, to imagine Sachin would be able to last four more years to play in another World Cup is outlandish.

Everyone believes this is his last shot at World Cup fame. The one time he got to the final he botched it in a hook shot aimed at McGrath in the bowling great’s first over at the Wanderers eight years ago. In a sense, this is a last chance saloon for him too.

A formidable Indian batting order is what is raising expectations to a fever pitch on the eve of the home World Cup.

I doubt there is even one person in the country today who would venture the opinion that Sachin should be batting down the order because Gautam Gambhir is a specialist opener.

The proposition is so absurd as to be a non-starter. Sachin will be piloting India in this World Cup from his favourite No. 2 position.