Sachin Tendulkar is the only player left of the 'FabulousFive' brigade after Sourav Ganguly, followed by Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, andmost recently, VVS Laxman bid adieu to international cricket.
Now the challenge for India is to overcome the transitionphase in the upcoming home season, in which the team would play 10 Tests, 13ODIs and three Twenty20 Internationals, apart from the ICC World T20 in SriLanka in September.
It is no secret that the mighty Australians are stillstruggling after the fading away of their cricketing greats.
Thus, India's young brigade would be keen to overcome thistough phase with the help of Tendulkar's experience before their real teststarts in 2013 when they take on the current No. 1 Test side, South Africa.
Moreover, the Indian team is returning to Test action aftera gap of seven months, which was preceded by two disastrous Test series.
After being drubbed 0-4 in England that stripped India offtheir No. 1 Test status, an identical rout followed in Australia.
The aftermath of the debacle was even more disturbing asDravid and Laxman, the two important pillars of Indian cricket, retired aheadof the start of the new season.
Their absence would mean that India would be without the twoprolific scorers, who had a total tally of 22,069 Test runs in 298 matches,almost after 16 years.
