The entire country will miss Rahul at No.3: Tendulkar

New Delhi: Sachin Tendulkar reckons Rahul Dravid’s retirement has left an huge void in the Indian cricket team and it would be impossible to find an able replacement for such an “incredible” player. “Rahul has been an incredible player for India and for world cricket. Nobody is going to be able to replace Rahul in that position,” Tendulkar said. Dravid has amassed more runs at No 3 than anyone in the history of Test cricket, including the likes of Sir Donald Bradman and Ricky Ponting. [caption id=“attachment_377302” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Dravid will be hard to replace. Reuters[/caption] “You need someone to be dedicated, be committed and disciplined. The entire country will miss him because we were all used to Rahul padding up batting at number 3. So obliviously these things will continue to happen because that’s how the game goes around for years. Before our generation, there were so many great players but the game continues,” Tendulkar told ‘CNN-IBN’. Dravid has scored 13,288 runs in 164 Tests. Indian cricket today is a far cry from what it was around the time Tendulkar started out, and the last couple of years have been a mixed bag, with the team experiencing success and failures in equal measure. Asked if there was any problem with the system, Tendulkar responded in negative. “I don’t think we can point our fingers at our structure because with that same structure we hit the number one spot. So if there was something wrong with the structure, we would have never reached that spot. “I just feel, you know, that if you compare the Australian series and you felt they always managed to get one big partnership. We were able to pick up early wickets, then invariably there was one partnership which tilted the game in their favour and there were not many big partnerships in our side.” “There are two ways to look at it. The batsmen aren’t scoring enough runs and on the other side the bowlers are allowing that one big partnership because one side was getting that advantage of one big partnership, the other side was not,” Tendulkar said. A hectic season awaits the Indian team, starting with New Zealand’s tour to the country for a three-Test series in September followed by home series against England and Australia, and Tendulkar was well aware of it. “Every season is important but this one I am sure everyone is looking for because it is England followed by Australia. It is going to be a competitive season. All I can say is we need all the backing, all the support to put up a good performance and produce that kind of cricket that everyone is expecting us to, and entertain everyone.” PTI