3 greatest batsmen of the modern era

#1 Sachin Tendulkar

"Cricket is a religion and Sachin is it's God".

To describe Sachin Tendulkar's career in a few words is an impossible task. It's like a son describing what mother means to him. Sometimes words fall short to describe emotions. And Sachin Tendulkar was India's emotion for 24 glorious years. He was a mirror for this developing nation. India's rise coincided with Sachin's rise. He stepped onto the field with expectations of hunting a billion people every single time. Such was the enormity!

He stopped a country of billion people when he was playing, he made them skip their heartbeats, for he was the man who controlled the happiness index of this gigantic nation. He was cricket's first global superstar.

Whenever the name Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar appeared on screen, it wasn't just any common name, it was a name that represented the nation. A name which carried the hopes of a country of billion people. Sachin Tendulkar is arguably the greatest athlete ever lived in terms of pressure that he had to handle.

In his 24 year career, Sachin played 463 ODIs and 200 Test matches which will remain beyond the wildest dreams for many. His career was built around fulfilling extraordinary expectations. If there is a record book in cricket for batting then Sachin is the name that's printed in every single one of them. Everything he did on a cricket field was a new thing. Every innings had some new heights that were reached.

Tendulkar was never a Lara or Bradman who scored big runs, but he was a man of centuries. The legend scored more runs than anyone else in the history of the game. He scored 15921 Test runs enclosed with 51 centuries and 68 half-centuries. His ODI career stats are of alien nature. In his 22-year long One-Day career, he scored 18426 runs garnished with 49 centuries and 96 half centuries. He became the first batsman to score a double century in ODI history. He was probably the hungriest man for runs on the cricket field ever.

When the Master Blaster left with a career total of 100 international centuries, it was not just the amount of runs, it was a current of happiness that kept flowing through the veins of his countrymen for 24 long years that had stopped.

It would be easy to say that Sachin was, is, and will always remain a part of the heartbeat of world cricket till eternity.