@tru_crciket_fan and manasvi_lingam, my numbers are 100% correct. I am not talking about First-class (three or more days duration matches) averages, I am talking about are "List A matches" (domestic 50-over matches) averages. I know that Ajinkya Rahane averages 66.91 to be exact in First-class matches, but he averages 40.41 compares to Pujara's 57.08 in List A matches. Don't tell me that my numbers are wrong, when you don't know the difference between First-class and List A matches. Also it was clearly mentioned in the first line of my first comment "domestic 50-over format". READ CAREFULLY first next time, before making an comment.

It true that Tendulkar is aging, he has 760 more runs to reach the 15,000 runs Gavakar wanted to get. He will be around 38/39 before he can reach that.The way he is batting as iI have said before, if he do not want to get out he will not get out, he should be able to reach it in the next five yest. Bear in mind Pointin is two years younger and is behind about 2000 runs. Austrailia will not allow hin to go untill he break Tendulkar mark. the way they did with Allan Border. He played until he was forty. So Sachin will have be more positive of going out. Because the Australiaians will not allow that to happen. Keep healthy Sachin. S.N.Singh USA

What Dhoni was trying to do was to ensure that Dravid and Tendulkar were there in case of a crisis ... Pujara has played an excellent knock ... but replacing Dravid is far cry ... something excellently put in the following article ...

http://senantixtwentytwoyards.blogspot.com/2010/10/three-amigos-and-young-man.html

Dear Manjrekar and the cricinfo team,

You have not talked about Vijay who contributed more than Pujara. Give equal credit to the performers. The partnership between Sachin and Vijay is the crucial point in the test match.

@Abhimanyu: Friend, you have got all your numbers wrong. Rahane has an average of almost 60 and Tiwary close to 50. Check the stats first before writing unnecessary comments.

India would still have to win in SA to retain the no.1 status....Losing to SA would hand SA the no.1 status and slide to no.2 this November. The real battle starts this November and SA team is a harder opponent than Aus team at the moment given the form and place where the test is being played....Great played against OZs at home...Best of luck against SA away from home.......

Sanjay Manjrekar keeps repeating the same comment atleast twice!

May be Sachin's defense was as strong before, but the instincts have calmed down a lot more! The interesting thing about him is that he is growing in confidence every match.

At the peak of his youth, he either used to get out very early or score big. Now, he rarely gets out early. I don't have figures but am very sure that his consistency levels in all formats of the game have improved as remarkably as his defense.

Perhaps stronger defense(in my words, higher concentration or maturity) and consistent starts are non exclusive in nature and rather might be highly co-related!

@Abhimanyu: By your logic, Vijay Merchant is the greatest batsman of all time after Bradman but we know it isn't true. Do not read into FC averages alone. Someone like Sehwag has a FC average of less than 50 (when Tests are removed) and he is a much better batsman than Saba Karim who averaged over 50. Mukund is good but so is Rahane. And if you talk about averages alone, then mention Ishant Jaggi, Tanmay Srivastava, etc.

Can cricinfo do everyone a favour and stop manjrekar or for that matter, ian chappel's views? yes, i am a sachin fan but what hurt most people is him saying sachin is an elephant in the room, etc a few years back when for everyone to see, sachin has always been the ultimate professional and team man...just see him engage with juniors who were in their nappies when he started cricket..and sachin himself used to revere sanjay in those early days, when sanjay was not even one of india's better players..and people like sanjay still comment about the great man just to get TRPs, some press...shame on him. Can understand chappel but sanjay, who was once close to sachin commenting so lowly about a man was not digestable to me..