The final of Indian Premier League 2010 to be played at Mumbai on 25th April 2010 will witness a clash of two superstars of Indian cricket. Sachin Tendulkar who led Mumbai Indians to finals has enjoyed superstardom at international level for 21 years while in the recent years he had to share stardom with Mahendra Singh Dhoni who has done exceptionally well in his brief playing career. It would be unfair to compare Dhoni with Sachin because players like Sachin are born once in evey 100 years, but if you leave out Sachin from the equation Dhoni is a superstar in his own right and walk into any team in world of his generation.
Indians can feel as much proud of Dhoni they feel of Sachin though in different capacities. India are lucky to have Sachin probably the best batsmen ever in the history of game while in Dhoni we have a captain who gave us more successes than any other Indian skipper including Sourav Ganguly. Another co incidence which bonds the two rival skippers is the fact that it was Sachin who declined the offer of Indian captaincy and proposed Dhonis name while Dhoni took up cricket watching Sachins heroics on television, a fact which he has proudly admitted umpteen number of times in interviews. Dhoni once made a famous comment that one slot in the Indian team is exclusively reserved for Sachin as long he is the skipper of the national team.
Having talked about Dhonis captaincy skills one must say that it was a combination of Dhonis famous luck and Deccan Charges misfortune that took Chennai Super Kings to finals. In the first place, Dhonis team struggled to make it to the semis with a 7-7 record while Deccans charged to semis winning 5 matches on the trot in a must win situation. There was pressure on Deccans as law of averages were bound to catch with them and that happened in the form of Dhonis luck with the toss which eventually proved crucial in the final analysis.
Sachin has admitted in interviews that it will take 8 days for him to get the stitches removed but if Mumbai Indians are to win then Sachin must play. One knows for a fact that Sachin is a honest player and would not play if he is fully fit. Once Sachin was selected to represent Rest of the World Team against Australia in Test and One Dayers Team but he pulled out because he knew he was not fully fit. Any other player in his place would have played because it is ones dream to get selected in a World Eleven.
Sachin as a captain has been tactically brilliant in this edition of Indian Premier League and wisdom lies in playing the game. Sachin need not bat or field but his mere presence in the playing eleven is enough to inspire his team mates to give their best and more importantly would be a cause of some discomfort for M S Dhoni and company. Another reason why Sachin should play the final is that he was the one who took Mumbai Indians almost single handedly to final with his extra ordinary form as a batsman and more importantly for his genius as a skipper which was almost unnoticed for almost 2 decades .
Dhonis Chennai Super Kings are the only team to have made the semi finals of all the three editions but the fact is that they have always struggled in the second half of the tournament in every edition while for Mumbai Indians it is their first final and they were outstanding in all facets of the game in this edition and it is only appropriate they win the tournament and that would be the best tribute millions of fans accross the world owe to our very own legend Sachin Tendulkar