Ever since he made his debut in 1989, Sachin Tendulkar was considered 'untouchable'. You simply can't even think of dropping Sachin, they said.

Yes, there have been many Indian legends - Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Anil Kumble, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag - who have been dropped at least once in their careers.

But not Sachin Tendulkar. The Mumbai maestro was an exception. His consistency in international cricket over a period of 23 years was unmatched. But there were times even in Tendulkar's perfect cricketing life when he struggled for runs.

We all know that Tendulkar was not at his fluent best in the last one and a half years of his international career. Even his hundred against Bangladesh which made him the only man to score 100 international centuries wasn't the most prettiest of sights.

Yes, a billion people in India were celebrating a unique achievement, but deep down everyone knew that the end was nigh for Tendulkar.

In fact many expected him to retire after the 100th century, but Sachin always evaded that retirement question. In fact, nobody dared to ask him that question in Press conferences.

But then Sachin stunned everyone when he announced his retirement from one-day cricket in December 2012, nine months after his last ODI for the country.

His retirement came as a surprise because Pakistan was to tour India for a short one-day series and everyone was expecting Sachin to play against a team he made his debut against all those years ago.

So why did Sachin decide to quit before the Pakistan series? That was one of the biggest mysteries in Indian cricket.

But now Sandip Patil, whose four-year stint as the chief selector of Indian cricket team came to an end recently, revealed that Tendulkar would have been dropped if he had not taken the decision to retire from one-day cricket.

"On December 12, 2012, we met Sachin and asked him about his future plans," Patil told an Indian new channel.

"He said he did not have retirement on his mind. But the selection committee had reached a consensus on Sachin... and had informed the board too about it. Perhaps Sachin understood what was coming because at the time of the next meeting, Sachin called and said he was retiring (from ODIs). If he had not announced his decision to quit then, we would have definitely dropped him," said Patil, who played 29 Test matches for India.

Sachin was 39 then and he had just won the World Cup with India on home soil. And it was highly unlikely that he would have made it to the 2015 World Cup in Australia.

His batting form after the 2011 World Cup was also poor by his own high standards. In the World Cup, he was the second highest run-scorer with 482 runs. But in 10 matches after the World Cup win, he made only 315 with an average of 31.50.

He eventually retired from Test cricket in November 2013 after his 200th Test in a two-Test series against the West Indies in Mumbai.

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