Tendulkar is rightly considered the most complete batsman of his age. PHOTO: AFP
The last doyen of arguably, the strongest batting line-up of the past two decades, Sachin Tendulkar finally brought an end to the speculation about when he will finally hang up his batting gloves. The maestro announced that he will be retiring from Test cricket after playing his 200th Test against the West Indies in November. Over a glittering 24-year career, Tendulkar captured the imagination of the global cricketing audience like no other player, right from the very first Test he played as a 16-year-old in 1989, against Pakistan. A teenaged Tendulkar successfully faced a barrage of hostile short-pitched bowling from the likes of Imran Khan, Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram, making it quite clear to those who witnessed the battle, that here was a great in the making.
Tendulkar is rightly considered the most complete batsman of his age, possessing every shot in the book and having the ability to both, tear apart bowling attacks and to control his natural aggression to suit the needs of his team. A quick glance at the statistics he compiled over his career make for mindboggling reading: over 34,000 international runs, the only player to score 100 international centuries, as well as being the leading Test and ODI run-scorer. Adversity seemed to bring out the best in the Little Master, with some of his most memorable knocks coming when India were in dire straits or when he was trying to get back into form after a string of poor scores. Other memorable knocks that Pakistanis are sure to remember will be his brave 136 in the 1999 Chennai Test and his stupendous 98 in the 2003 World Cup clash between the archrivals. With runs having dried up for the maestro in recent times, there had been a growing belief that he may just have overstayed his welcome. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that Tendulkar will be greatly missed, not just by his countrymen, but by cricket fans the world over.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 12th, 2013.
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@Yasin: No muslim batsman has made half the number of runs he has.Apart from Hindus, Christians dominate the sport.
@Yasin, You're Jinnah's true follower. :P
He is the best among the Hindu batsmen.
Sad to see the end of great era.Hats off to Sachan Tendulkar.