Sachin Tendulkar      

India

Full name Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar

Born April 24, 1973, Bombay (now Mumbai), Maharashtra

Current age 42 years 135 days

Major teams India, Asia XI, Mumbai, Mumbai Indians, Yorkshire

Nickname Tendlya, Little Master

Playing role Top-order batsman

Batting style Right-hand bat

Bowling style Right-arm offbreak, Legbreak googly

Height 5 ft 5 in

Education Sharadashram Vidyamandir School

In a nutshell Perhaps the most complete batsman and the most worshipped cricketer in the world, Tendulkar holds just about every batting record worth owning in the game, including those for most runs and hundreds in Tests and ODIs, and most international runs. More

Batting and fielding averages

	Mat	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	BF	SR	100	50	4s	6s	Ct	St
Tests	200	329	33	15921	248*	53.78			51	68		69	115	0
ODIs	463	452	41	18426	200*	44.83	21367	86.23	49	96	2016	195	140	0
T20Is	1	1	0	10	10	10.00	12	83.33	0	0	2	0	1	0
First-class	310	490	51	25396	248*	57.84			81	116			186	0
List A	551	538	55	21999	200*	45.54			60	114			175	0
Twenty20	96	96	11	2797	100*	32.90	2310	121.08	1	16	359	38	28	0

Bowling averages

	Mat	Inns	Balls	Runs	Wkts	BBI	BBM	Ave	Econ	SR	4w	5w	10
Tests	200	145	4240	2492	46	3/10	3/14	54.17	3.52	92.1	0	0	0
ODIs	463	270	8054	6850	154	5/32	5/32	44.48	5.10	52.2	4	2	0
T20Is	1	1	15	12	1	1/12	1/12	12.00	4.80	15.0	0	0	0
First-class	310		7605	4384	71	3/10		61.74	3.45	107.1		0	0
List A	551		10230	8478	201	5/32	5/32	42.17	4.97	50.8	4	2	0
Twenty20	96	8	93	123	2	1/12	1/12	61.50	7.93	46.5	0	0	0

Career statistics

Test debut	Pakistan v India at Karachi, Nov 15-20, 1989 scorecard
Last Test	India v West Indies at Mumbai, Nov 14-16, 2013 scorecard
Test statistics
ODI debut	Pakistan v India at Gujranwala, Dec 18, 1989 scorecard
Last ODI	India v Pakistan at Dhaka, Mar 18, 2012 scorecard
ODI statistics
Only T20I	South Africa v India at Johannesburg, Dec 1, 2006 scorecard
T20I statistics
First-class debut	1988/89
Last First-class	India v West Indies at Mumbai, Nov 14-16, 2013 scorecard
List A debut	1989/90
Last List A	India v Pakistan at Dhaka, Mar 18, 2012 scorecard
Twenty20 debut	South Africa v India at Johannesburg, Dec 1, 2006 scorecard
Last Twenty20	Mumbai Indians v Rajasthan Royals at Delhi, Oct 6, 2013 scorecard

Recent matches

Bat & Bowl	Team	Opposition	Ground	Match Date	Scorecard
1/33, 44	M.C.C.	v ROW XI	Lord's	5 Jul 2014	Other OD
74, 0/8	India	v West Indies	Mumbai	14 Nov 2013	Test # 2102
1/5, 10, 0/18	India	v West Indies	Kolkata	6 Nov 2013	Test # 2101
5, 79*	Mumbai	v Haryana	Rohtak	27 Oct 2013	FC
15	Mum Indians	v Royals	Delhi	6 Oct 2013	T20
35	Mum Indians	v Trinidad & T	Delhi	5 Oct 2013	T20
0	Mum Indians	v Scorchers	Delhi	2 Oct 2013	T20
5	Mum Indians	v Lions	Jaipur	27 Sep 2013	T20
15	Mum Indians	v Royals	Jaipur	21 Sep 2013	T20
38*	Mum Indians	v Sunrisers	Mumbai	13 May 2013	T20

Profile

Sachin Tendulkar has been the most complete batsman of his time, the most prolific run maker of all time, and arguably the biggest cricket icon the game has ever known. His batting was 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 didn't have a signature stroke - the upright, back-foot punch comes close - it's because he was 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.

There were no apparent weaknesses in Tendulkar's game. He could score all around the wicket, off both front foot and back, could tune his technique to suit every condition, temper his game to suit every situation, and made runs in all parts of the world in all conditions.

Some of his finest performances came 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 retained a divine enthusiasm for the game till his last match. 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. And on November 16, 2013, Tendulkar retired from Test cricket after a memorable 200th Test, on his home ground at the Wankhede Stadium against West Indies.

Tendulkar's considerable achievements seem greater still when looked at in the light of the burden of expectations he 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 took their toll on the body, but Tendulkar remains, by a distance, the most worshipped cricketer in the world.