It seems the author who penned Sachin Tendulkar's fate got a writer's block and all he did was plagiarise Kapil Dev's script. The life terrains of the the twin peaks of Indian cricket have been going unbelievably parallel to date. But with India's victory at Kanpur in the second Test it seems the eye-rubbing coincidence theory has ended.

Kapil's second innings in 1985 had a disastrous opening. The man who got India its only World Cup during his first tenure had ahead of him an easy series (Sri Lanka) and a difficult one (Australia). Kapil amazingly lost the three-Test series against to Lanka and to make matters worse suffered the expected reversal against Australiatoo.

Tendulkar's second coming too had similar easy-difficult prospects -- Black Caps coming to India followed by the trip to Down Under. Doubting Thomases had the `we-knew-it' look after the first Test at Mohali but Kanpur changed it all and if things go his way at Ahmedabad, Sachin will shake hands with Kapil and charter his own course.

The Kapil-Tendulkar similarity also stands true in their promotions and demotions. Kapil superceded Sunil Gavaskar twice while Tendulkar too upstaged Mohammed Azharuddin on two occasions. Meanwhile, both were replaced by the same players at the end of their first tenure.

The two immensely popular stars have also shown similar pattern in approach to captaincy too. The similarities in their positive and negative traits are hard to miss. Leading from the front and not to crack under pressure comes as a second nature to the mindbogling talented cricketers. But both the players have a tendency to let things drift when the ball is not rolling for them.

A poker facedKapil's total surrender to Graham Gooch's sweeping strategy during the '87 World Cup semi-final, sent the Indians out of the premier event while it also proved the last match for the all-rounder. Tendulkar's `white flag' routine during Sri Lanka's marathon innings of 952-6 at Colombo had critics in full cry. More recently the final day at Mohali, New Zealand captain's stone walling had him in a corner.

Another common ailment for these gifted cricketers is/was their failure to understand the problems the lesser mortals faced. This at times alienated them from the team.

But what Kapil lacked and Tendulkar possesses is an example to learn from. A case history to look into the `What-Went-Wrong' factor. A first-hand account from the man who has seen it all. Remedial measures which he had tried but didn't work or measures he did not try that might work. Let's hope it takes two of a kind to tango.