Sachin Tendulkar is great player and a humble man: Waqar Younis

Waqar Younis, the former Pakistan fast bowler, reckons that apart from being a stupendous cricketer, Indian legend Sachin Tendulkar is also a humble character. Back in November 1989, Sachin and Waqar made their international debuts at the National Stadium in Karachi.

Even as Tendulkar carried on playing until 2013, Waqar’s career came to a close after the 2003 World Cup. Both cricketers turned out to be colossal figures from their countries. Waqar heaped praises on Sachin, saying that the Master Blaster has handled his career well.

“Sachin Tendulkar is not only a great player, but a great human being also. I mean, keeping aside his Test records and one-day records, as a human being and because of his qualities, people of all ages like him,” Younis was quoted as saying during a chat show for Q20, GloFans.

Full marks to him: Waqar Younis

“He is a very humble man and everyone has seen his achievements and has seen him performing on the field. Overall, full marks to him for the way he has handled his career,” he stated.

Waqar was also impressed by Sachin’s knock against Pakistan in the 2003 World Cup. In that game at the SuperSport Park in Centurion, Tendulkar notched 98 off 75 and guided India to a six-wicket triumph. It needed a vicious bouncer from Shoaib Akhtar to send Sachin back to the hut.

“Sachin Tendulkar’s innings against Pakistan in 2003 is hard to be described in words because he played so well and especially because India was under pressure on that day and we were good at bowling.

“Probably even if you would ask Sachin about this, he might also say the same thing, that it was probably one of his best innings,” he added.

Waqar, on the other hand, had a terrible outing. He leaked as many as 71 runs in 8.4 overs at an economy of 8.19, though he picked up the wickets of Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly, the then Indian skipper.

Nevertheless, Waqar ended his career as Pakistan’s all-time second highest wicket-taker after Wasim Akram’s tally of 916 scalps. Younis racked up 789 wickets from 349 games with 35 five-wicket hauls.