In the 1990s, everyone used to say that Tendulkar's was the all-important wicket in the Indian team. It certainly bore examination, as there were numerous occasions when his dismissal ended the resistance from the Indian team. Most notably in the Chennai test against Pakistan, when Tendulkar's superb 136 in the fourth innings could not win India the match, as he lost his wicket about twenty runs before the target (his lower back injury was acting up), and the remaining four wickets promptly collapsed. The assumption always was that Tendulkar is under so much pressure because he knows if he gets out, the team will fold up instantly, and to be fair, it was more than partially true. But this was before the new era in Indian cricket dawned, before Sourav Ganguly became captain in 2000. With the emergence of Dravid, Laxman, Ganguly and later Sehwag as genuine match-winners, the pressure has been off Tendulkar for quite a while. And yet, since then, Tendulkar has deteriorated as a player. He does not deliver in crunch situations and you'd be hard pressed to find a single occasion when he took India home.
