In all, he scored five centuries in a couple of months, including two breathtaking tons at Sharjah. But, leading a weak, incapable team has robbed him the opportunity to take on the Aussie quicks on hard bouncy tracks in order to counter accusation that he made merry on batting friendly wickets, while McGrath missed the tour of India. It is not as if Tendulkar is incapable of dominating attacks like his idol Richards did, but captaining what can be safely termed as the worst-ever Indian team will eventually wear him down mentally. The world may not have seen Tendulkar at his best yet and captaincy may deprive us of that privilege. Since there is little that Tendulkar can do as captain to reorder the entire team, the BCCI might as well allow the world and India to marvel as his genius blossoms further rather than wait for the team to complement him, which it simply is not capable of.
Statistics alone convey the measure of the team's misery.
Australian batsmen made eight 50s and four 100s in the three Test series, while India had three 50s and two 100s. In terms of playing time, India lost all three Tests. Not a single Indian batsman averaged over 50. Anil Kumble batting at No. 10 had averaged 25, better than Rahul Dravid, who made 93 runs in six innings at 15 runs. Hrishikesh Kanitkar and Vijay Bhardwaj, who played instead of Mohammed Azharuddin, had a combined average of 12.25, while Ajit Agarkar had five ducks.