Hyderabad: Sachin Tendulkar is a familiar name in the cricketing fraternity and cricket fans always hail him for his performances over the years. The veteran player used to take his side to victory single-handedly victory with his knocks. He has shattered many records and there are only a few which can be broken with ease even with run-scoring becoming easier in the modern era.
He has scored the most runs in international cricket and has 100 centuries to his name. However, there is one unknown fact about the Indian batter, even before making his international debut he played for the Pakistan cricket team.
Played for Pakistan at Young age
Tendulkar made his international debut at the age of 16 in 1989 against Pakistan. However, before their debut, he played in the Pakistan team at the age of 13. In 1987, as part of the golden jubilee of the Cricket Club of India (CCI), a Test and ODI series was organized as a friendly match between India and Pakistan.
The touring Pakistan side played against India in a warm-up game at the Barbourne stadium. However, in the lunch break, Javed Miandad and Abdul Qadir went to the hotel to have lunch. Even when play resumed, both of them didn’t come back to the ground.
As a result, Pakistan was short of one fielder. Thus, Imran Khan insisted on having an Indian player as a substitute. The Indian team then sent boundary boy, Tendulkar to field for the Pakistani side.
Fielded for 25 minutes
Tendulkar fielded for a span of 25 minutes for the Pakistani team. When Sachin was fielding at long on, India's World Cup-winning team captain Kapil Dev hit a shot towards Tendulkar but he failed to catch the ball. The cricketer himself has mentioned this in his autobiography 'Playing it My Way'.
