Warne recalls watching Tendulkar bat for the first time, says 'he looked 10 yrs old'

Shane Warne recalled how Sachin Tendulkar had taken him and the Australian bowlers to the cleaners during the Test series in early 1992 where Warne had made his debut. The leggie got an opportunity of bowling to the Master Blaster in the third Test of that series, but it did not turn out to be a good experience for the 1999 World Cup winner.

The Little Master on the other hand had already established himself as one of the finest batsmen in world cricket. After his international debut in November 1989 against arch-rivals Pakistan, he had earned a lot of fame and recognition for showing a fearless approach towards the mighty Pakistani bowling lineup. In one of the Test matches, he continued to bat even after being hit on the nose by a vicious bouncer on a green-top wicket and had also clobbered spin legend, Abdul Qadir, for four consecutive sixes in that series.

'Pretty special': Shane Warne'

“When I first saw Sachin Tendulkar in the first Test, he was 21. But looked about 10. I thought this guy was pretty special. He’s smacking us all over the park and he’s 10 years of age. You can tell when players come out and it’s the time they’ve got. That’s the class about them. You can tell that about good player. The time, elegance. It all looks easy,” the Aussie spin legend said while doing commentary on Sky Sports during a Test match between England and Pakistan.

 

Shane Warne's career

Warne has been a part of two World Cup finals that the Australian team had featured in. One in 1996 (lost to Sri Lanka) and 1999 (beat Pakistan comprehensively). He called it a day on his illustrious cricketing career in January 2007 after the Aussies had overcome arch-rivals England in the 2006/07 Ashes series at home. The frontline leg-spinner took his 700th Test scalp in that series when he bamboozled Andrew Strauss to achieve the feat. 

Shane is the second-highest wicket-taker in red-ball cricket with 709 wickets behind Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan (800).

Sachin Tendulkar's successful cricketing career

Tendulkar had made his debut at the international level as a teenager back in 1989. Sachin has scored 15921 runs in 200 Tests and 18426 runs in 463 One Day Internationals. He also remains the top run-scorer in both these formats to date. The Little Master also has 100 international centuries to his name which is a feat that no one else has achieved. The champion batsman also became the first player to score a double century in ODI cricket.

The cricket legend has represented India in six World Cups and was an integral part of the Men In Blue's historic triumph in 2011 where he was the second-highest run-scorer with 482 runs. The 47-year-old was also Team India's backbone in the 2003 World Cup where he had scored 673 runs in 11 matches. India finished as runners-up after losing to the then mighty Australia in a lop-sided final but he was adjudged as the Player of the Tournament.

READ: Mahela Jayawardene Reveals Who Was The Better Spinner Among Shane Warne And Muralitharan