Sachin Tendulkar’s international career is synonymous with India. Across 24 years, he became the country’s highest run-scorer, scored a record 100 international centuries and carried Indian cricket through multiple eras.
But two years before making his debut in Indian colours, Tendulkar took the field for Pakistan!
The incident dates back to a festival match at Mumbai’s Brabourne Stadium in 1987. Tendulkar, then 15, was asked to field as a substitute for Pakistan after Javed Miandad and Abdul Qadir went off the field during the lunch break.
A missed catch that stayed with him
Imran stationed the teenage Tendulkar at long-on while Team India was batting.
Soon, Kapil Dev lofted a shot in his direction. Tendulkar sprinted after the ball but failed to reach it before it landed. It was an ordinary moment in an exhibition game, but one that would become a fascinating piece of cricket history after everything that followed.
Years later, Tendulkar wrote about the incident in his autobiography ‘Playing It My Way’. He believed he had been positioned too deep and joked that he might have completed the catch had Imran placed him at mid-on instead of long-on. He also wondered whether the former Pakistan captain remembered the episode.
A rivalry that came full circle
Just years later, Tendulkar made his international debut for India against Pakistan in Karachi. Facing an attack led by Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Imran Khan, he began a career that would span more than two decades.
The image of Tendulkar in India’s blue jersey eventually became one of the defining sights in world cricket. That is why his brief appearance as a substitute fielder for Pakistan remains one of the sport’s most unexpected stories.
It lasted only a few overs and remains an extraordinary footnote in cricket history that one of India’s greatest players first stepped onto an international stage wearing the colours of its biggest rival.
