Reportedly former Pakistan captain and legendary fast bowler Waqar Younis on friday recalled how he became the first bowler to dismiss india legend sachin tendulkar in their debut Test in Karachi in 1989. Notably both Waqar and Tendulkar made their international debut in 1989 in the Karachi Test and the pakistan fast bowler went on to get the wicket of the then indian teenager. Tendulkar faced 24 balls and scored 15 before he was cleaned up by Waqar with a brilliant inswinger but the young boy gave a glimpse of his genius. His debut was a sign of things to come.
However, Tendulkar hit his maiden fifty, scoring a gritty 59 off 172 balls in the first innings of the second Test. In the next match, Tendulkar came close to scoring another half century but missed out on the feat after being clean bowled by Abdul Qadir for 41. Waqar Younis said on The Greatest Rivalry podcast "The first Test was at Karachi and I got him early. I think he scored 15. He played a couple of really classy on-drives and straight drives in that 15. He didn’t score much after that in that series but the fifty you were mentioning which he scored in Sialkot that was on a green top wicket".
Waqar Younis also revealed his first memory of the then 'Indian batting prodigy', having heard of a schoolboy who was scoring triple centuries for fun. Waqar also said that they were not sure about Sachin’s greatness from the first impression. He said "About sachin, the entire india Under-19 team, they were just raving about him, saying how good that little kid is. Even scoring a century at school is an amazing thing”.
