Can you guess the name of a person who was only 16 when he made his Test debut? He was hit in the face by Waqar Younis in that game, but continued to bat. 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.
Yes we are talking of Sachin Tendulkar who is celebrating his birthday today. Known as God of Cricket, he became the first batter to have scored 50 international hundreds in 2000, in 2008 he passed Brian Lara as the leading Test run-scorer, and in the years after, he went past 13,000 Test runs, 30,000 international runs, and 50 Test hundreds.
He holds the record for most hundreds in both Tests and ODIs – remarkable, considering he didn’t score his first ODI hundred until his 79th match. At just under 37 years of age, he made the first double-century in one-day cricket. In 2012, a month short of his 39th birthday, he became the first player to score 100 international centuries, which, like Bradman’s batting average, might be a mark that lasts for ever. Later that year, though, he announced his retirement from ODIs after a disappointing 18 months in international cricket. And on November 16, 2013, he retired from Test cricket after a memorable 200th Test, against West Indies.
Let’ see some different pictures of Tendulkar which define him as a generous human being too.