Sachin Tendulkar, then 16 years old, was making his Test debut against Pakistan in Karachi, and it was the first sight of a genius who would go on to control cricket for the next 24 years.
The fact that the pads he was wearing while batting in his debut innings were given to him by none other than Sunil Gavaskar made it even more special.
Gavaskar had given Sachin a pair of ultra-light pads when he was 14 to soothe him after he didn’t win the Mumbai Cricket Association’s ‘Best junior cricketer award.’ In his debut game, the youngster only had 15 points. But there was no doubt that the young guy was destined for greatness by the time he reached his first Test tonne in 1990.
Between 1989 and 2013, the Master Blaster would hit a lot of home runs, play a lot of games, and set a lot of records. But, to this day, he still considers Gavaskar’s gift to be his biggest source of inspiration. That is why he wore them for the first time while representing his country.
