Shane Warne recalls '10 years of age' Sachin Tendulkar smashing Australian bowlers

Southampton: Australian spin legend Shane Warne has recalled the time when he saw Sachin Tendulkar in international cricket for the first time and he thought he was “10 years of age”.

Warne, who has had many on-field battles with Tendulkar, spoke about the batting legend during TV commentary for the ongoing third Test between England and Pakistan in Southampton.

The Australian talked about Tendulkar’s first tour to Australia in 1991-92 and smashing the hosts’ bowlers all over the park at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in the third Test where Tendulkar scored 148 not out and Ravi Shastri made a double hundred.

“When I first saw Sachin Tendulkar in the first Test (in Sydney), he was 21. But looked about 10. I thought this guy was pretty special. He’s smacking us all over the park and he’s 10 years of age. You can tell when players come out and it’s the time they’ve got. That’s the class about them. You can tell that about good players... the time, elegance... it all looks easy,” Warne said on air, according to Hindustan Times.

Warne made his Test debut in that Test in January 1992. He took one wicket for 150 runs in 45 overs. The match ended in a draw.

Two Tests later, in the fifth Test of the series, Tendulkar scored another century (114), in Perth. India lost the game by 300 runs and the five-match rubber 0-4.

Talking about how good a batsman Tendulkar was, he said, “The good players, if they get a good ball to score off, they don’t hit the fielder, they find the gaps, hit it to the boundary and that puts pressure back on the bowler.”

“That means as a batsman, you can get more bad balls. If you’re just looking to survive and you haven’t got that intent as a batsman as a bowler you feel like you can bowl wherever you want and the batsman is not going to hurt you,” he added.

Tendulkar retired in 2013 after playing in a world record 463 ODIs and 200 Tests. The former India captain is the only batsman to score 100 international centuries. He also holds many records.