Sachin Tendulkar vs Virat Kohli vs Joe Root- Century Race Timeline From Debut

Sachin Tendulkar scored his maiden ODI century today in 1994 | PC- BCCI

Considered as one of the finest cricketers to have ever played the sport, Sachin Tendulkar, on this day, scored his maiden ODI century. 

In the testing conditions at Pallekele, the Little Master smoked a stylish 110 off 130 deliveries, featuring eight fours and two sixes, against an Australian attack that had Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. In that game, he was the only centurion across both innings, and the only two batters scored over 50 runs. 

32 years later, Sachin Tendulkar has all the milestones and accolades to his name. He has the record for most international centuries - 100 hundreds. No one has played more Test or ODI matches than SRT. Moreover, his Test tally of 15,921 runs is still the Mount Everest yet to be climbed.

In this article, we will look at Sachin Tendulkar’s career in two phases - first till he scored his 50th international century and then from the moment beyond that.

Sachin Tendulkar's career till his 50th international century

Having made his debut in November 1989 at Karachi, Sachin Tendulkar took nearly a year to register his maiden international century. And within the 11 years of playing the international cricket, he had 50 hundreds to his name: 24 tons in Test cricket and 26 in One-Day Internationals. 

Tendulkar smacked his 50th international century in a Test match at Nagpur against Zimbabwe. The prolific batter, who had smacked a hundred in the previous Test at Delhi, made this occasion even more special, as he scored an unbeaten 201. 

By this time, he had played 79 Test matches and 258 ODIs, scoring 6422 and 9,612 runs respectively. 

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Sachin Tendulkar took just 11 years to complete his first 50 international centuries. During that time, he played more ODI cricket than he did in the longest format. Although his ODI average was just 41.97 at that time, his number was simply outstanding, with no other batter coming even close to him across formats. 

Sachin Tendulkar's career from his 50th international century

Sachin Tendulkar played nearly 13 more years of international cricket, eventually retiring in November 2013 at Mumbai. During that time, he played 121 Test matches and 205 ODI matches, scoring 27 and 23 centuries, respectively. 

Tendulkar's final of his 100 international tons came in Mirpur against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup 2012. The prolific batter smacked 114 runs in 147 balls, featuring 12 boundaries and a biggie, but in a losing cause. 

Sachin Tendulkar played 79 more innings between his 50th and final international centuries than he did between his first 50 hundreds. However, he scored nearly 3000 more runs. His innings per century ratio may have also dropped, and his average also saw an evident dip. However, his stats still remained staggering. 

Meanwhile, in ODI cricket, the God of Cricket, as they say, played fewer ODIs, but his average in the given format raised. But, the number of fifty-plus scores were nearly the same. 

Meanwhile, in ODIs, the God of Cricket played fewer matches in the latter phase of his career, yet his average actually improved. He still registered almost the same number of fifty-plus scores, scoring 70 in the latter half and 72 in the first half. 

How have Kohli, Root done in Tendulkar's comparison to reach to 50 Centuries? 

Meanwhile, Virat Kohli is regarded as the biggest candidate to break Sachin Tendulkar's record of 100 hundreds. The Chasemaster took just 297 innings to complete his 50 international centuries, which is 79 innings fewer than Tendulkar took. 

That said, Tendulkar scored 1,500 more Test runs during the same period, while he was just a few hundred runs ahead of his successor in the ODI format. 

On the other hand, Sachin's biggest competitor in the longest format, Joe Root, is not so far behind. He completed his 50 international centuries in 425 innings, 49 more than SRT. He played 265 innings in Test cricket and 160 innings in ODI to get to the milestone.

That said, Tendulkar held the edge in several key aspects, making him the greatest ever to have played the game. 

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