Sachin Tendulkar once held the record as the youngest player to enter the Ranji team at 14 years.
Sachin Tendulkar is superstitious. He would put on his left pad before putting on the right one while padding up.
Sachin Tendulkar had a habit of sleepwalking as well as talking in his sleep. (Excerpts from Caught Told, Humorous Cricketing Anecdotes, by Sandeep Patil and Clayton Murzello).
Sachin Tendulkar's dream of becoming a fast bowler was rejected by Australian great Dennis Lillee at the MRF Pace Academy at Chennai in 1987.
Sachin Tendulkar is ambidextrous - he bats and bowls with his right hand, but writes with his left. He shares this trait with other great personalities such as Tom Cruise, Jimi Hendrix, Rafael Nadal, Einstein and Beethoven.
During the Bombay Ranji team tours, Sachin Tendulkar carried along his textbooks in order not to neglect his studies.
Sachin Tendulkar holds the record for most man-of-the-match awards won by a player on losing side (6).
When Sachin won the man-of-match award for his first Test ton in 1990, he was given a champagne bottle. However, he could not pop it open as he was below 18 years (age limit for alcohol consumption in U.K.) He went on to open it on his daughter, Sara's first birthday in 1998.
Sachin Tendulkar holds a record for a 664-run partnership with former India player, Vinod Kambli, during an inter-school game in 1988.
Sachin Tendulkar is the youngest Indian (19 years) to play English county cricket and was also Yorkshire's first overseas cricketer in 1992.
Sachin Tendulkar is the first player ever who a third umpire has given out after TV replay. This was when India toured South Africa in 1992-93.
Sachin Tendulkar has an average of 40.7 while leading as Mumbai Indians captain in T20 cash-rich league IPL.
On debut Sachin Tendulkar scored centuries in all three major domestic first-class tournaments: Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Irani Cup.
On his Test debut at Karachi, Indian legendary batsman, Sunil Gavaskar presented Sachin Tendulkar with batting pads that he wore during the match. (Getty Images).
Before the age of 20, Sachin Tendulkar had already scored five Test centuries which is a world record.
During the game against Pakistan in Ferozshah Kotla, where Anil Kumble scalped his record 10 wickets in an innings, a superstitious Tendulkar, handed Kumble's cap and sweater to the umpire before the latter began his over. Kumble picked up a wicket each time Sachin did so.
In 1998, Sachin Tendulkar had his best year in ODI format with 1,894 runs consisting 9 centuries.
Sachin Tendulkar has been dismissed in the 90s for 23 times in his International career. Whereas, Sachin has taken 200 wickets in his International career (Tests - 45, ODIs - 154, T20s - 1).
Sachin Tendulkar holds the record for scoring most 1,000 Test runs in a calendar year. He has done this six times - 2010 (1562 runs), 2008 (1063 runs), 2002 (1392 runs), 1999 (1088 runs), 2001 (1003 runs) and 1997 (1000 runs). (Getty Images).
On 3 September 2010, Sachin Tendulkar became the first sportsperson ever to be awarded the honorary rank of Group Captain by Indian Air Force.
On 4th June 2012, Sachin Tendulkar became a Member of Parliament when he took his oath as a Rajya Sabha member.
Among the present International cricketers, Sachin Tendulkar is the only one who made his debut in the 80's, 1989 to be precise.
Sachin Tendulkar has featured in six editions of the 50-over World Cup, from 1992 to 2011, a record he shares with Pakistan's Javed Miandad, who played in all World Cups from 1975 to 1996.
Sachin Tendulkar has taken five wickets in an ODI twice, both at Kochi -- 5/32 against his favourite opponents Australia in 1998, and 5/50 vs Pakistan in 2005.
When Sachin Tendulkar made his Test debut back in 1989, Bhuvneshwar Kumar wasn't even born, Virat Kohli and Ishant Sharma were a year old, Ravindra Jadeja was on the verge of turning one, Ajinkya Rahane was one-and-a-half years old while Ravichandran Ashwin was three!
Out of Sachin Tendulkar's 51 Test hundreds, 20 have come in winning causes and 11 have ended in defeats. Twenty of his remaining tons have come in drawn Tests.
In ODIs, 33 of Sachin Tendulkar's centuries have resulted in wins, 14 have been scored in losses, one came in a tie, and one was scored in a match that produced no result.
Sachin Tendulkar has been dismissed for 99 in ODIs thrice, all three dismissals came in 2007 (Pic/ Atul Kamble).
Sachin has been the first victim of many Test debutants over the years. The list includes England's Monty Panesar and Mark Ealham, Australia's Cameron White, Peter Siddle and Peter George, New Zealand's Andy Mckay and Jacob Oram, Zimbabwe's Neil Johnson and Ujesh Ranchod, and Sri Lanka's Ruwan Kalpage. Sachin was also Hansie Cronje's first Test victim, but the late South African was playing in his second Test (Atul Kamble).
In ODIs as well quite a few bowlers have claimed Sachin Tendulkar as their first victim on debut - Craig Matthews (South Africa), Sultan Zarawani (United Arab Emirates), Mohammad Rafique (Bangladesh), Manzoor Akhtar (Pakistan), Mluleki Nkala (Zimbabwe), Scott Styris (New Zealand), Mushfiqur Rahman (Bangladesh), Asim Saeed (United Arab Emirates) and Roger Whelan (Ireland).
Sachin Tendulkar is the only batsman to have scored over 2,000 runs in World Cup cricket. He has amassed 2,278 runs in 45 matches. He has also been the top run-scorer in an individual World Cup tournament twice - 673 runs in 2003 and 523 runs in 1996.
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