Former Pakistan captain Inzamam-ul-Haq gave the greatest tribute to Sachin Tendulkar on the 10th anniversary of his historic double century in ODIs. Inzamam said he had never seen a cricketer like him. Sachin had become the first-ever cricketer to score an ODI double hundred when he achieved the feat against South Africa at Gwalior on February 24, 2010. To celebrate the same, Inzamam gave four reasons why Sachin Tendulkar was an ‘ever-great’ cricketer.
“He was born for cricket. I always believed cricket and he were made for each other. I’m talking about the ever great Sachin Tendulkar,” Inzamam said on his youtube channel on Monday.
The first reason that Inzamam gave to explain Sachin’s greatness was his ability to play the best of bowlers at such an early age. “It still amazes that at a tender age of 16-17, he made his international debut and did such great things. This is only possible by some extraordinary cricketer, in fact, if there is anything above extraordinary then that is Sachin,” said Inzamam.
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Remembering Sachin’s debut tour in 1989 in Pakistan, Inzamam also narrated the well-renowned story of Sachin hitting great Pakistan leg-spinner Abdul Qadir for four sixes in an over.
“It’s easier said than done. He was playing against the likes of Waqar and Wasim on his debut at 16 years of age. The kind of cricket he played against that bowling attack was startling,”
Sachin, who is the only cricketer to have played 200 Tests, has a record 15921 runs – the most – at an average of 53.79. In 463 ODIs, Sachin has 18426 runs. Sachin is also the only cricketer in the world to have scored a hundred international centuries.
Inzamam picked Sachin’s ability to score runs and break records that no one could think of as his second-biggest quality. “The second biggest quality I believe was his records. During that era, the concept of scoring this many runs wasn’t even there. The great players used to be finished with 8-8.5 thousand runs. Only Sunil Gavaskar had scored 10 thousand runs and it seemed that record will never be broken. But Sachin broke all records of scoring runs. Now I’m waiting to see who will break Sachin’s mountain of runs,” Inzamam added.
According to Inzamam, Sachin’s third biggest strength was his mental toughness. “He was mentally so so tough. I’m saying this because when Sachin used to come out to bat, he was always under pressure. I have never seen more fan following of a cricketer than Sachin’s. He had fans all around the world. There was pressure on him to score in every innings,” said Inzamam