Sachin to become most capped Indian player on home ground tomorrow

Mumbai, Mar 17 (UNI) Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar will add another feather in his cap when he sets out to play against England in the third and final Test beginning here tomorrow.

It will be the little master's 132nd Test appearance, the most by an Indian and he would be doing so in front of his home crowd in Mumbai where the young Tendulkar learnt and honed his game to perfection.

For a man who has written and then rewritten record books time and again, this Test would also prove to be no different and, modest as the little champion is, he would gladly want to have the attention on Rahul Dravid who would be playing his 100th Test. This, however, would in no way take away the effort and hard work, overcoming lows and highs, that tendulkar has endured in his 16-year long career so far.

Tendulkar had burst upon the scene as a young 16-yr-old school boy by taking on the Pakistanis in their own den against an attack comprising the great Imran Khan along with Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, without even flinching a bit.

When he made his debut, he ws the youngest Indian to play Test cricket at the age of 16 yrs and 205 days.

Since then he never looked back and instead went from strength to strength as the records tumbled behind him and the bowlers sufftred from his willow. In fact, the champion leg spinner Shane Warne had gone on record in 1998 to say that the Mumbai champion gave him nightmares.

Tendulkar became the world's leading run-getter in one-dayers and highest century maker in Test cricket, overhauling Sunil Gavaskar's world record Test ton tally of 34 earlier this season at New Delhi's Ferozshah Kotla ground.

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