Inzamam-ul-Haq explains why Sachin Tendulkar was one of a kind

The India-Pakistan rivalry in cricket is like none other as it brings out the best out of both the teams (as well as the fans). However, the players have immense mutual respect, as made evident by the way Inzamam-ul-Haq praised Sachin Tendulkar recently.

“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.

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Tendulkar made his debut in an era where he had to face the likes of Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis as a 16-year-old. Later on, he came across other great bowlers like Glenn McGrath, Alan Donald, etc. Despite their quality, Tendulkar was successful against them and that is one of the big reasons why he is seen as a cricketing legend.

“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.

“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,” he further added.

Tendulkar played 200 Tests and scored 15,921 runs while in 463 ODIs, he scored 18,426 runs -- records that still stand unbroken and, according to the former Pakistan skipper, will be difficult to break in the future too.

"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 asserted.