Sachin Tendulkar May Have Retired But His Records Are Hard to Beat
The MOST of everything. Sachin “God” Tendulkar
16 November 2013. Not a date Indian cricket fans will forget easy.
After more than two decades of entertaining his devotees from the 22 yards, Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar retired from International cricket.
It’s been four and a half years since that day in Mumbai, but the legend of Sachin Tendulkar still presides over World cricket, here’s taking a look at some of the records he still holds:
To start from the top, even Sachin’s beginnings in World cricket were record-breaking.
With just one first-class season under his belt, a 16-year-old Tendulkar was selected for India’s tour of Pakistan in 1989. At 16 years and 205 days, he made his debut in the Karachi Test, scoring 15 runs.
To date, he is the youngest cricketer to have ever represented India.
From his first Test, to his last at the Wankhede – Sachin played a total of 200 matches in whites for India.
A journey that started in Karachi on 15 November 1989, ended in front of his home fans on almost the same date. 14 November, 2013.
The 200 matches, still a record held by the Master.
On the same tour of Pakistan he made his Test debut, Sachin also played his first one-day international. On 18 December 1989. He got out to a second-ball duck.
24 years in the Indian dressing room and Sachin has, to date, played more 50-over matches than any other cricketer in the world.
Most matches to most tons and 16 March 2012 is yet another day Sachin fans will have at the back of their minds.
The wait had been long, 34 innings long, but one evening in Bangladesh, the Little Master entered the history books with yet another epic first.
The first cricketer to amass a hundred hundreds in international cricket.
Soon after, Sachin retired from ODIs and even till his farewell game, could not manage to hit the three-figure mark again. However still, he remains the cricketer in history with the most centuries.
For the cricket romantics, this one might matter more. Sachin leads the field for the most centuries in Test cricket as well. Of his 100, 51 were scored in the longest format.
The player closest to him is Jacques Kallis with 45 tons.
No surprise though that Sachin’s 49 remaining tons, scored in ODIs, also land him at the top of the pack in the shorter format.
He leads Ricky Ponting by 19 whole centuries, but a certain Virat Kohli is slowly climbing up that ladder.
Whatever batting record there is to hold with “most” as a prefix, Sachin clearly still owns.
The next category: most runs.
In the Test format, Sachin’s 200 outings earned him returns of 15,921 runs at an average of 53.78. More than 2,000 runs than the next man on the list, Ricky Ponting.
Fun fact: Sachin highest score in Test cricket is 248*
463 one-day outings for India and Sachin left many memories for his fans in whites.
The memories, put together, amount to 18,426 ODI runs. Again, the most in history.
Fun Fact: Sachin was the first male cricketer to score a double century in ODIs.
200 Tests, 463 ODIs and 1 T20 match and of course Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar also holds the record for the most runs in international cricket!
34,357 runs collected over a span of 24 runs. Memories left behind, for a lifetime.
(This article is being reposted from The Quint’s archives on the occasion of Sachin Tendulkar’s 45th birthday. It was originally published on 24 April 2017.)
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