While more than half a century ahead, it is Bradman who holds the sexiest stat and rarely much else except aggressive plundering is spoken of him, my hunch is that around 20 years ahead, they shall speak of Sachin not as a holder of 100 international hundreds so much as a man who was the most aesthetic aggressor in the ugliest era of batsmanship across formats that were as different as a novel is from a flash fiction, and stayed at the top of the game for more than 22 years, infinite media frezny, and was the best in the toughest batting decade in the history of Cricket (90s) as well as the easiest (2000s).
To me, Sachin's real counterpart wouldn't be Bradman or Ponting, it would have to be Richards and Boycott, people who held citadels far away from the statistical plundering. One defined accumulation with a purpose, scoring with vengeance, and another exercised the most ruthless indifference to big scoring, yet remained the most genuinely solid presence to dislodge.
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