Sachin Tendulkar - Early Domestic Career

Early Domestic Career

On 14 November 1987, Tendulkar was selected to represent Bombay in the Ranji Trophy, India's premier domestic first-class cricket tournament, for the 1987–88 season. However, he was not selected for the final eleven in any of the matches. A year later, on 11 December 1988, aged just 15 years and 232 days, Tendulkar made his debut for Bombay against Gujarat at home and scored 100 not out in that match, making him the youngest Indian to score a century on first-class debut. He was handpicked to play for the team by the then Mumbai captain Dilip Vengsarkar after watching him easily negotiating India's best fast bowler at the time, Kapil Dev, in the Wankhede Stadium nets, where the Indian team had come to play against the touring New Zealand team. He followed this by scoring a century in his first Deodhar and Duleep Trophies, which are also Indian domestic tournaments.

Tendulkar finished the 1988–89 season as Bombay's highest run-scorer. He also made an unbeaten century in the Irani Trophy match against Delhi at the start of the 1989–90 season, playing for the Rest of India.

In 1992, at the age of 19, Tendulkar became the first overseas-born player to represent Yorkshire, which prior to Tendulkar joining the team, never selected players even from other English counties. Selected for Yorkshire as a replacement for the injured Australian fast bowler Craig McDermott, Tendulkar played 16 first-class matches for the county and scored 1070 runs at an average of 46.52.

His first double century was for Mumbai while playing against the visiting Australian team at the Brabourne Stadium in 1998. He is the only player to score a century in all three of his domestic first-class debuts.