Was completely out of place on my Test debut, reminisces Sachin Tendulkar

Was completely out of place on my Test debut, reminisces Sachin Tendulkar

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Gettty

Sachin Tendulkar has revealed that after his first Test innings against the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis at Karachi, he felt out of place as a cricketer and was in tears in the dressing room. Tendulkar also credited Ravi Shastri for the advice that helped him get over that horror memory.

A glorious career filled with incredible memories of yore, Tendulkar is regarded as the most celebrated cricketer of all-time and to many, the most complete batsman as well. Be it the first Test knock of 1992 at Old Trafford or the solid performance in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, there have been so many memories of the Master Blaster but his debut endured. As a 16-year-old, though, the prospect of facing Waqar Younis and Wasim Akram on the debut overwhelmed him and he was dismissed for a duck, only to be left dejected.

"I was clueless; I have to admit that. I played the first Test as if I was playing a school match. Wasim and Waqar were bowling quick, and they were delivering short balls and all sorts of intimidating things they could do. I had never experienced anything like that, so the first outing wasn't a pleasant one," Sachin told Nasser Hussain during 'Nasser meets Sachin' episode on Skysports.

"Occasionally, I got beaten by their pace and bounce, and when I got out on 15, I felt embarrassed when I walked back to the dressing room. I was like 'what have you done, why did you play like this' and then when I reached the dressing room, I went straight to the bathroom, and I was almost in tears."

Although Tendulkar was extremely young and was new to the set-up, he knew the likes of Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Manjrekar beforehand with whom he had played for Bombay in the Ranji Trophy. After Tendulkar was back in the dressing room, Shastri came to him and advised him to take his time out in the middle before being casual against them. It was a suggestion that acted as a charm as Tendulkar hit a fifty in the Faisalabad Test.

"I felt I was completely out of place. I looked at myself and questioned myself and said: 'looks like this is gonna be your first and the last outing'. I felt that I'm not good enough to play at this level. I was upset and feeling low. The teammates realised. I still remember the conversation I had with Ravi Shastri. Ravi said, 'you played as if it was a school match. You are playing against the best bowlers; you need to respect their ability and their skill.

"Then I told Ravi that I got beaten by their (Pakistan bowlers) pace. To which Ravi said: 'That happens to quite a few, you don't worry. You just look to go out and spend half an hour in the middle and then you will get adjusted to their pace, and everything will fall into place after that'.

"When I was picked to play in the second Test at Faisalabad, the only thing on my mind was, I'm not gonna look at the scoreboard. I will only look at the clock and not worry about scoring runs. I batted for half an hour, and I felt really comfortable and I scored 59 runs in that match and after that things started changing," Tendulkar added. 

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