Tendulkar completes 20 years in international cricket

Sachin Tendulkar has completed twenty years in international cricket on 15th November, 2009. He had begun his career in Pakistan as a 15 year old boy in 1989 on the same date, and has gone on to become one of the best batsman in the world in the following twenty years.

Some of the tributes that the players gave him included the likes of Virender Sehwag who said that it was Tendulkar who motivated him into playing longer innings. He also said that it was Tendulkar who taught him the mental aspects of the game, and how to face a particular bowler. He also said that Tendulkar's biggest strength that he read the situation well and could adapt himself to that.Sachin Tendulkar himself has said that there is a 16-year old inside him who is still waiting to play.

Harsha Bhogale has said that it was his focus in the game that stood out. Even as a child cricketer, it stood out, and there have been various instances of that happening through the rest of his career. There was this one instance of Tendulkar scoring a century in the game against Kenya in the 1999 World Cup after having just lost his father. It was his focus and steely resolve that had helped him do that.

For Tendulkar himself, the biggest and the best moment in his career came when he got the chance to wear the Indian cap. He has also attributed the manner in which he has managed to keep his feet on the ground to his parents and his brother to begin with, and then to his wife, who he says has been his anchor.

Tendulkar has almost 13000 runs in test match cricket, and only recently completed his 17000 runs on the ODI. Tendulkar has 42 centuries in the test matches, and 45 in the ODI version of the game. He also has 95 scores of a half century and above, including the centuries, in the test matches, whereas he has scored 136 fifty plus scores in the one day internationals.

Tendulkar also has 60 man of the match awards to his name in the ODIs, as against the 14 man of the series awards. He has also been involved in one 300 run stand in the ODIs, which is incidentally the highest ever partnership in that format. The two innings that will probably be the best of his would be the one at Sharjah against Australia in 1998, and the one in Chennai against Pakistan in 1999.