Ahmedabad, he was dropped after playing only two Tests. But Sidhu made a sensational comeback in the Reliance World Cup in 1987. With four half centuries in five innings in the competition, he forced himself back into the Test side as a transformed batsman. He celebrated his return by scoring a century in the first Test against New Zealand at Bangalore the following season. He was in good form in the Test series in the West Indies that followed. Not only did he get a courageous hundred in the final Test at Kingston, he also scored 286 against Jamaica - the highest score by an Indian outside India. He was one of the few batsmen equally at home in Tests and one day cricket and the manner in which he played the spinners was an object lesson in attacking batsmanship. He did well enough in Pakistan in 1989, New Zealand later that season and in England in 1990 before temporarily losing his place. But he forced his way back again during the 1993 England tour of India and remained, more or less, a regular member of the team till the end of the decade. Midway through the 1996 tour of England however, following a misunderstanding with the captain Azharuddin, he deserted the team and returned home.
But that was not the end of his career and Sidhu saved his best for the last phase of his career. With courage and consistency as his forte, he ran up a series of big scores, including a double century against West Indies at Port of Spain in 1997. This was followed by a good run against Australia the following season, where he often softened up Shane Warne for Tendulkar to demoralise the bowler. He still had a lot of good cricket in him when he decided to call it quits in 1999
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