sachin

Sachin Tendulkar

Personal information
Full name	Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar
Born	(1973-04-24) 24 April 1973 (age 40) Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra, India
Nickname	Tendlya, Little Master
Height	5 ft 5 in (1.65 m)
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm leg spin, off spin, medium pace
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	India
Test debut (cap 187)	15 November 1989 v Pakistan
Last Test	22 March 2013 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 74)	18 December 1989 v Pakistan
Last ODI	18 March 2012 v Pakistan
ODI shirt no.	10
Only T20I (cap 11)	1 December 2006 v South Africa
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1988	Cricket Club of India
1988–present	Mumbai
1992	Yorkshire
2008–present	Mumbai Indians
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	198	463	302	551
Runs scored	15,837	18,426	24,896	21,999
Batting average	53.86	44.83	57.89	45.54
100s/50s	51/67	49/96	80/113	60/114
Top score	248*	200*	248*	200*
Balls bowled	4,198	8,032	7,551	10,230
Wickets	45	154	70	201
Bowling average	54.69	44.32	62.15	42.17

Sachin Tendulkar has been the most complete batsman of his time, the most prolific runmaker of all time, and arguably the biggest cricket icon the game has ever known. 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 at each of the full range of orthodox shots (and plenty of improvised ones as well) and can pull them out at will.

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: 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. His 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 years after, he went past 13,000 Test runs 30,000 international runs, and 50 Test hundreds.

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: at 36 years and 306 days he broke a 40-year-old barrier by scoring the first double-century in one-day cricket. In 2012, when just one month short of his 39th birthday, he became the first player to score 100 international centuries, which like Bradman's batting average, could 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.

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 in each innings 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.
                                                                       it will countinue.......................................