10 reasons why the cricket world will miss Sachin Tendulkar

6. The Run Machine – scoring runs by the tons

He just enjoyed doing what he did best – make runs. No, scratch that. Others made runs, Sachin made scores of runs.

There was always a hint of the mischievous child in that smiling face of his each time he made a fifty or a hundred. In the World Cup editions of 1996, 2003 and 2011, he crafted at least one century – each knock a lot more polished and aesthetic than the last. Yet, nothing could take away the sheer joy that suffused his facial features when his innings won games for his side.

His double century against the South Africans at Gwalior in 2010 let the entire cricketing fraternity know that at 37, Sachin still had the appetite for amassing as many runs as possible; a run-glutton he was, so to speak.

The similarities with Bradman do not stop with their batting styles. Both had such a propensity to score truckloads of runs that it became difficult for opposing captains to set attacking fields in order to curtail their gluttony. It took Bodyline to keep Bradman in check, while Saqlain Mushtaq’s doosra and Glenn McGrath’s probing off-stump line managed to do the same to Tendulkar, albeit briefly.

It is the burning desire for runs that will be conspicuous by its absence when Sachin walks into the sunset of a glorious career.