Sachin Tendulkar has completed twenty years in international cricket. He had first played a test match on 15th November, 1989 against Pakistan, as a highly precocious 15-year old and when he walked out to face the Sri Lankans, he was into his 21st year in the international cricket. Unfortunately for him, he scored only four before being bowled by C. Welegedera.
Tendulkar had burst onto the scene with a 664-run stand with Vinod Kambli in school cricket in the Harris Shield. He then went on to smash a century in each of his three debuts, Ranji, Irani and Duleep trophy. He played his first game against Pakistan at Karachi and scored 15. Later in the same series, he went on to get to his first half century in international cricket, after being hit on his face by a bouncer from Waqar Younis.
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar (सचिन रमेश तेंडुलकर) - is highest run scorer in both Test matches and ODIs
On the same tour, he then made his ODI debut, where he was dismissed for a duck. However, it was the ODI-turned-exhibition game before that against Pakistan, that he captured the people’s imagination by running through the Pakistani bowlers and scoring a 53 off 18 balls.
He opened the ODI innings for the first time in 1994 against New Zealand, and hasn’t looked back after that. He smashed a 49-ball 82 in that match in a batting that was similar to the ones we would find today in T20. His first century had taken more than 70 ODIs, before he got one against Australia in Colombo, and after that, it took him only four years to go past Desmond Haynes record for the most number of tons in ODIs.
His first double century was against New Zealand at Ahmedabad, and this was followed by another against Zimbabwe and another 241 unbeaten against Australia. This was followed by a double century against Bangladesh which also had a century partnership with Zaheer Khan.
In the ODIs, he had begun his career with two successive ducks. Later, he went on to score a 186 against New Zealand, 152 against Namibia, 163* against New Zealand and 175 against Australia, to record four scores of more than 150. He also has three 99s in ODIs, all of them in 2007.
Tendulkar’s own wish is to feature in the 2011 World Cup and win the tournament for India.
