It is impossible to put down Tendulkar-worshippers. Not even when their God gets off to a miserable start in the new season with just 15 runs (8 and 7) at Ahmedabad.So, while Rahul Dravid may have scored all the runs at Motera, it was Sachin Tendulkar — as always — who hogged the attention at Mohali on Tuesday, pushing aside even Yuvraj Singh, the local heartthrob. People jostled with each other to catch his glimpse and kids for the prized autograph.Fearing ostracisation, not many among the cream of cricket writers gathered here talked about Sachin’s performance at Ahmedabad. Or if they actually did, it was only in muffed tones. Of course, who can question the genius of Tendulkar in India? Certainly not on the basis of a couple of failures. And that too on a ‘dead’ wicket. No way. ‘‘He’s too good a batsman to be bogged down by all this’’ is the general refrain.Coach John Wright agrees. ‘‘Questions about Sachin’s form were put to me during the start of World Cup also but we were confident that his bad form was just a blip. Everyone knows now how well he batted there,’’ the Kiwi said today.With Dravid and VVS Laxman easing off a lot of pressure from Tendulkar’s shoulders in recent times, it is time the latter came up with some match-winning knocks to keep his ‘best bastman in the side’ status intact.Though grounds matter little when talking about one of the world’s best batsmen, Sachin knows well that he’s had relatively good outings at Mohali in the last few years.If his 88 against England set up a memorable 10-wicket victory in December 2001, his face-saving century against the Kiwis back in ’99 is still considered as one of the best knocks at Mohali. Let’s hope he scores another one this coming weekend.
