Following his 200th Test match against the West Indies in 2013, legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar announced his decision to retire from international play.

Tendulkar, or the Little Master, made his debut in India’s tour of Pakistan in 1989 at the age of 16 in Karachi. During his illustrious Test career, he went on to become the only player to score 100 international centuries and score 15,921 runs at an average of 53.78. The Indian batsman went on to become the all-time leading scorer in both one-day international and Test matches.

Sachin was able to play his final match at his home ground, Wankhede Stadium, because the two-Test series against the West Indies was played in Kolkata and Mumbai.

In his final Test inning, he scored 74 runs, just 79 runs short of 16,000 runs in Test cricket.

Tendulkar announced his retirement through a statement he had made via Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s website which read as follows:

“All my life, I have had a dream of playing cricket for India. I have been living this dream every day for the last 24 years. It’s hard for me to imagine a life without playing cricket because it’s all I have ever done since I was 11 years old. It’s been a huge honor to have represented my country and played all over the world. I look forward to playing my 200th Test Match on home soil, as I call it a day.”

Tendulkar had expressed.

Tendulkar only needed nine matches to score his first century in a Test match against England the same year he made his debut. His final over was a 74 against West Indies at his Mumbai home field. Throughout his career, Tendulkar had scored 49 ODI hundreds and 51 Test hundreds.

On December 12, 2013, Tendulkar announced his retirement from Twenty20 cricket and One-Day International (ODI) cricket.Additionally, his last appearance for Mumbai Indians (MI) was in 2013. Considered by a lot of people to be quite possibly the best cricketer ever, Sachin likewise captained the national team at one point in his career.

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On November 15, 1989, he made his debut for India during a Test match against Pakistan. At the time, he was only 16 years old. Additionally, on December 18, 1989, he made his ODI debut.

He has been awarded the Bharat Ratna, the Arjuna Award, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award, the Padma Shri, Padma Vibhushan, and the Arjuna Award. In 2019, he was additionally drafted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He also won the World Cup in 2011.