When the cricketing gods will decide to make the perfect batsman of all time they will give their prodigy the hitting capability of Viv Richards, the prolific scoring capability of Don Bradman and the balance Sachin Tendulkar.

A lot has been said about Sachin being the perfect batsman and many critics discussed his various assets. But what created that massive figure of 100 international centuries was, balance at the crease. The reason for writing this article is that this aspect of his batting has not been emphasized enough and I have a feeling that people don’t seem to have realized it.

Shoaib Akhtar was easily one of the most feared fast bowlers of his generation and took Sachin’s wicket many times which he must be proud of. He once said during an interview that he was bowling and Sachin was hitting the Pakistan bowlers all over the park. He decided to try to trap Sachin on the pads with a sharp in-swinger. Now those who have played the game of cricket know that a fast bowler looks at the batsman a fraction of a second after delivering the ball. Shoaib looked at Sachin and his blood crawled as he saw the big bat already raised and the ball flayed away to square-leg boundary later. The reason for mentioning the incident here is that it gives you an idea about how quickly Sachin got into position. Mind you this was the fastest bowler in the world and could knock your block off. Just that fear would deter most batsmen from playing all their shots. No problem to Tendulkar though. He was absolutely nonchalant in his footwork against all kinds of bowlers. Front foot back foot or somewhere in the middle he could still dispatch you to the boundary.

I have only seen him getting out to tearaway fast bowlers thrice due to their pace. Once was against Henry Olonga and second was Alan Donald. Olonga might like to believe that he got the great man fending due to his speed but that really was a fluke. Sachin was vicious on the revenge trail against him in the next match and what happened is folklore in India. Donald was craftier and had a theory that if a genuine fast bowler bowls a fast in-swinger at an appropriate time in a match he will get Sachin either LBW or bowled. He did get Tendulkar out a couple of times to support this argument. But then Sachin made a correction in his technique to get the left foot across outside the line to avoid getting out either LBW or bowled. So this theory faded away quickly. Another incident has to be against Shoaib Akhtar in the 2003 World Cup semifinal when he got Sachin with a fierce rising ball. But Sachin had already done the damage by then with a 75 ball 98.

His small stature may have also contributed to him getting this balance. This poise at the wicket was unparalleled. I have never seen another batsman getting in position to play a cricket ball so quickly. So for becoming a perfect batsman apart from everything else you will need an eye of a tiger and balance of Sachin Tendulkar!