Test debut | Pakistan v India at Karachi, Nov 15-20, 1989 |
Last Test | India v South Africa at Kolkata, Feb 14-18, 2010 |
Test statistics | - Statsguru Test analysis – Player analysis menu/filter Test match list ——————————— Batting career summary Batting innings list High scores Batting series averages ——————————— Bowling career summary Bowling innings list Bowling match list Best innings bowling Best match bowling Bowling series averages ——————————— Fielding career summary Fielding innings list Most catches in an innings Fielding series statistics |
ODI debut | Pakistan v India at Gujranwala, Dec 18, 1989 |
Last ODI | India v South Africa at Gwalior, Feb 24, 2010 |
ODI statistics | - Statsguru ODI analysis – Player analysis menu/filter ODI match list ——————————— Batting career summary Batting innings list High scores Batting series averages ——————————— Bowling career summary Bowling innings list Best innings bowling Bowling series averages ——————————— Fielding career summary Fielding innings list Most catches in an innings Fielding series statistics |
Only T20I | South Africa v India at Johannesburg, Dec 1, 2006 |
T20I statistics | - Statsguru T20I analysis – Player analysis menu/filter T20I match list ——————————— Batting career summary Batting innings list ——————————— Bowling career summary Bowling innings list ——————————— Fielding career summary Fielding innings list |
First-class debut | 1988/89 |
Last First-class | India v South Africa at Kolkata, Feb 14-18, 2010 |
List A debut | 1989/90 |
Last List A | India v South Africa at Gwalior, Feb 24, 2010 |
Twenty20 debut | South Africa v India at Johannesburg, Dec 1, 2006 |
Last Twenty20 | Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab at Mumbai (BS), Mar 30, 2010 |
Sachin Tendulkar has been the most complete batsman of his time, and arguably the biggest cricket icon as well. His batting is based on the purest principles: perfect balance, economy of movement, precision in stroke-making, and that intangible quality given only to geniuses, anticipation. If he doesn’t have a signature stroke – the upright, back-foot punch comes close – it is because he is equally proficient in each of the full range of orthodox shots (and plenty of improvised ones as well) and can pull them out at will.
There are no apparent weaknesses in Tendulkar’s game. He can score all around the wicket, off both front foot and back, can tune his technique to suit every condition, temper his game to suit every situation, and has made runs in all parts of the world in all conditions.
Some of his finest performances have come against Australia, the overwhelmingly dominant team of his era. His century as a 19-year old on a lightning fast pitch at the WACA is considered one of the best innings ever to have been played in Australia. A few years later he received the ultimate compliment from the ultimate batsman when Don Bradman confided to his wife that Tendulkar reminded him of himself.
Blessed with the keenest of cricket minds, and armed with a loathing for losing, Tendulkar set about doing what it took to become one of the best batsmen in the world. Tendulkar’s greatness was established early: he was only 16 when he made his Test debut. He was hit on the mouth by Waqar Younis but continued to bat, in a blood-soaked shirt. His first Test hundred, a match-saving one at Old Trafford, came when he was 17, and he had 16 Test hundreds before he turned 25. In 2000 he became the first batsman to have scored 50 international hundreds, in 2008 he passed Brian Lara as the leading Test run-scorer and in the following years, he crossed 13,000 runs and 30,000 international runs.
He currently holds the record for most hundreds in both Tests and ODIs – remarkable, considering he didn’t score his first ODI hundred till his 79th match. Incredibly, he retains a divine enthusiasm for the game, and he seems to be untouched by age: at 36 years and 306 days he broke a 40-year barrier by scoring the first double-century in one-day cricket. It now seems inevitable that he will become the first cricketer to score 100 international hundreds, which like Bradman’s batting average, could last for ever.
Tendulkar’s considerable achievements seem greater still when looked at in the light of the burden of expectations he has had to bear from his adoring but somewhat unreasonable followers, who have been prone to regard anything less than a hundred as a failure. The aura may have dimmed, if only slightly, as the years on the international circuit have taken their toll on the body, but Tendulkar remains, by a distance, the most worshipped cricketer in the world.
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