India still need Sachin, Dravid, Laxman: Hadlee

Many former cricketers have suggested that legendary trio Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman should retire after India's embarrassing performance overseas against England and Australia recently.


Sachin Tendulkar

However, former New Zealand cricket great Richard Hadlee believes that India should persist with them for some more time. "You can't be talking about Tendulkar, Laxman and Dravid's retirement. You can't afford to lose all these players in one go. You need to see the young players go through," Hadlee told PTI in an interview yesterday.


Rahul Dravid

Going by their stature, the experienced trio batted poorly during the recent whitewash against Australia in the four Test matches. Though Tendulkar (287) finished as the second highest-runscorer in the Test series, Dravid managed to get only 194 and Laxman scoring 155. In fact, tailender R Ashwin finished with better average (32.60) compared to Dravid and Laxman.


VVS Laxman

Hadlee, however, said the final decision rests with the Indian selectors. He also said Tendulkar is under pressure to get the historical 100th international hundred. "When you are in search of a major milestone, like I was trying to beat Ian Botham's world record of maximum Test wickets, it creates a lot of pressure. I am sure Tendulkar might be feeling the same way," he said.


Richard Hadlee

"As far as Indian team is concerned, all they want is he gets to that hundred and they can all relax and get on with the game," he added. "I remember people talking about Tendulkar's retirement during 2007 World Cup in the West Indies, but he went on to amass runs for the next five years.

"It may be a year since Tendulkar hasn't scored a hundred, but he has still batted pretty well and scored some good sixties, seventies and eighties and held the Indian innings together," Hadlee said.