Sachin Tendulkar has many numbers beside his name but perhaps the most significant is 200 - the number of Tests the Indian batsman played, a record which many experts believe will never be broken.
Tendulkar by numbers
16
Tendulkar was just 16 when he made his debut at Karachi in 1989. Selector’s plucked the precociously talented teenager to face the fearsome Pakistani attack which included Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Waqar Younis and Abdul Qadir. The young Sachin showed his mettle when, after being struck on the mouth by a searing Younis delivery, he batted on in a blood-soaked shirt. Tendulkar made a modest 15 runs in his maiden innings, before he was bowled by Younis.
40
Tendulkar retires at the age of 40 after an astonishing 24 years at the top of the international game. Many of his current teammates were toddlers when he made his debut and two of his teammates in his final Test, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami, weren’t even born.
100
Fittingly the little master has notched up 100 international centuries during his career. 51 of those have come in Tests and 49 in ODIs His maiden Test hundred came at the age of 17, a match saving knock at Old Trafford, and he became the first player to score 100 international tons in a one-day defeat by Bangladesh in 2012.
200
Tendulkar became the first batsman to make a double century in an ODI when he scored an undefeated 200 off 147 balls against South Africa in 2010. But the most significant 200 next to his name is the number of tests played, a record which many experts believe will never be broken.
18,426
The number of runs Tendulkar racked up in One-Day Internationals. Interestingly, he didn’t record his first ODI century until his 79th match. Along with his 49 tons, Sachin reached 50 on 96 occasions, smashing an astonishing 2016 boundaries and clearing the fence 195 times along the way.
1
Tendulkar played a solitary T20 International, preferring to concentrate on the longer formats of the game. His only T20 match for India against South Africa in Johannesburg in 2006, where he scored 10 runs of 12 deliveries and had bowling figures of 1/12.
0
The number of times he’s batted at first drop. For most of his career Tendulkar has occupied the number four slot, and although he’s opened for India and occupied the crease at five or six, Sachin has never batted at number three.
248
Tendulkar's top score is an unbeaten 248 in the second innings against Bangladesh in 2004. His mammoth stint in the middle lasted for 552 minutes in Dhaka.
74
Tendulkar’s final innings. After making 38 on the opening day of his 200th and last test, the retiring legend walked out at Wankhede stadium to an almighty roar from the Mumbai crowd. He survived a spirited appeal by Tino Best and brought up his 50 to rapturous applause. A farewell century beckoned but the fairy tale was denied when Sachin edged a Narsingh Deonarine delivery to Darren Sammy at first slip. The crowd was eerily silent for a second, unwilling to believe the final moment had arrived. The ovation swelled as Tendulkar walked back to the pavilion for the last time, many fans in tears as they bid the little master goodbye.
15,921
The number of Test runs scored by Tendulkar during his career, 2,543 more than the next highest run-scorer, Ricky Ponting.
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