End is a beginning

Rahane faced the seamers,leaning forward a touch in his stance,front elbow sticking out,pointing to mid off. He moved forward or back studiously,almost self-consciously,and defended nearly everything with a scrupulously straight bat. Tendulkar faced the spinners,his stance a study in relaxed stillness,a stillness that quickly dissolved into blurry shuffles down the wicket.

Tendulkar entered the series with his future looking uncertain. He had averaged 19.44 across his last two Test series,against New Zealand and England,and announced his retirement from ODIs. The first time he took strike,India were 12 for two responding to Australias 380. James Pattinson,who had bowled both openers,steamed in.

First ball,Tendulkar took a big stride forward and punched a sweet checked drive to the cover boundary. Next ball,his feet moved the same way,but his hands waited an instant longer to open his bat face and steer it square for another four. Two balls later,he stepped across his crease and tucked it neatly off his hips to the fine leg fence.

A long silence

Since that 81 at Chennai,which in hindsight might have been a series-changing innings,Tendulkar hasnt had much to do. He has twice come in with India chasing small targets 8211; striking two sixes and finishing not out in Chennai and making a 23-ball 21 before being run out in Mohali 8211; and twice entered the fray after 250-plus top-order partnerships 8211; falling cheaply in Hyderabad and featuring in an important 92-run stand with Murali Vijay in Mohali.

He wont complain about the relatively less demanding situations he has had to confront thanks to Indias growing dominance,but Tendulkar would love a chance to make a really big score in Delhi,even if its a dead rubber. He has gone 36 innings without a Test hundred,and has never been part of a side that has completed a 4-0 whitewash.

Rahane could achieve that on his debut. But its not as if he hasnt had to wait,having carried drinks in 16 Tests since his first squad call-up against the West Indies in 2011. Since then,his ostensible role has vacillated between reserve opener and reserve middle-order. This,perhaps,has been one of the reasons why he has had to wait so long for his turn.

As someone who bats in the top three for Mumbai,hes never been seen as a number six. And so,since that first series on the bench,India have tried Yuvraj Singh,Virat Kohli,Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja who has batted at No.7,with MS Dhoni moving up one place in that role.

With chairman of selectors Sandeep Patil stating that his panel viewed Rahane as a middle-order batsman,the vacancies created by their dropping Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag at the top of the order were filled by Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan. When Dhawan was injured,the selectors first named Gambhir as his replacement. Had Gambhir not been diagnosed with jaundice,he might well have walked out alongside Vijay to open against the Australians on his home ground.

D-day

But thanks to an injury and an illness,Rahanes moment seems to have arrived. Unless India rejig their batting order entirely,ask Cheteshwar Pujara to open,and play Raina in the middle order,Rahane will receive a brand-new Test cap from a senior member of the side.

If that man turns out to be Tendulkar,it will be a moment both men will treasure. Since Wasim Jaffer at the turn of the century,only three Mumbai players have made Test debuts for India. And between them,Sairaj Bahutule,Sameer Dighe and Ramesh Powar played 10 Tests. None of them,moreover,was a batsman. Its hard to say where the drought of Mumbai batsmen stepping up to play Test cricket for India will have figured among the list of cricketing issues that have worried Tendulkar,but he will be delighted when Rahane finally ends it.