What if Sachin drops down?

When sorrows come, they come not single spies,

But in battalions.

– Shakespeare, Hamlet, IV, 5

It's a typical story of luck turning tyrant. Call it unfavourable constellations, this Indian team is just not getting a breather from a string of mishaps. As if the on-field marauding and ruckus back home are not enough, the side’s most reliable bat, Rahul Dravid, has hit the darn thing – a finger injury.

This inopportune blow could, once again, fatally expose India’s frail middle-order should Sachin Tendulkar perish early.

India cannot have a genuine stab at a win with players who have been proved suspect as bankable commodities. Swamped in this wobbly pool, India has been losing the plot halfway through. One feels the side could do with the Little Master’s guiding eye in the middle.

Sure-enough Tendulkar remains India’s best bet at the top. As an opener, his ribbon of blazing light will stupefy generations together; he owns an average of 48.25 and 37 centuries in the position. But singing these numbers today would mean holding on to a prejudice.

Since Tendulkar’s 65 against West Indies in the DLF Cup, the runs have been hard coming. His genius is heavy with pillars of pressure to get a big one. If Tendulkar walks in at four, he could fluidly find the gaps – both in the field as well as on his mind. What’s more the colts could bat around him.

With Dravid gone and VVS Laxman virtually a non-starter for Port Elizabeth, Team India needs the watch and ward of an experienced hand in the middle.

In any case Tendulkar hasn’t fared abysmally at number four. He averages 38.29 in the position (modest though by his standards) with three centuries and 13 half centuries. More importantly he could get a start when the ball’s sheen would be less fierce. To preserve him for the next three years, India needs to ease his travails.

There is another advantage in having him batting till the end. A sagacious reader of the wicket that he is, Tendulkar can always discriminate a realistic total from an extravagant one. And if the team gets a decent start, it may breathe a lot easier knowing that the Little Master is yet to stamp his sovereign glory on the match.

This may not necessarily be a permanent arrangement. Sachin can always reclaim his slot after his captain and Yuvraj Singh return to the fold.

In certain conditions, though, he could be a pivotal influence at the top. Remember his insidiously composed innings of 95 (last year) against Pakistan in Lahore when the ball talked and darted around in the first 15 overs.

The moot point is, who should open with Virendra Sehwag if Tendulkar drops down? One failure should not stand against Wasim Jaffer who is a natural opener. When you have him why not use him? He should be filling that void, albeit temporarily. Dinesh Mongia, though less inspiring, is another option if the team chooses to try a left-right combine.

True these are not archetypal suggestions but when our five wise men louse up on the selection, one can’t do much else.