Sometimes, there are big age differences between teammates. For example, when Sachin Tendulkar started playing, many of his teammates were really young. By the time he retired in 2013, they were still young, some were babies. This happens a lot, and it’s interesting to see the numbers.
Here are 5 legends who made their international debut before their teammate was born:
1. Javed Miandad and Saqlain Mushtaq
Javed Miandad was a really great cricket player, especially for Pakistan in the 1980s. He played a lot of matches for Pakistan, both in Test matches and One Day Internationals, for about 21 years. But by the time the 1996 World Cup came around, Miandad was getting old for cricket. He hadn’t played for a while, but he really wanted to play in this big tournament.
What’s surprising is that one of his teammates, Saqlain Mushtaq, wasn’t even born when Miandad started playing for Pakistan. Saqlain was born over a year after Miandad’s debut for Pakistan.
2. Imran Khan and Aaqib Javed
Imran Khan was famous for being handsome and skilled at both batting and bowling in cricket. He led Pakistan to win the 1992 World Cup. He played 88 Test matches and 175 One Day Internationals (ODIs), taking 362 and 182 wickets, and scoring 3807 and 3709 runs respectively. He started playing for Pakistan on June 3, 1971.
In the 1992 World Cup, Pakistan only had Imran and Javed Miandad as experienced players. Aaqib Javed, a young bowler, replaced Waqar Younis in the team. Aaqib was born on August 5, 1972, after Imran had already started playing for Pakistan. He went on to play 22 Test matches and 163 ODIs, taking a total of 236 wickets.
3. Wilfred Rhodes and Bill Voce
Bill Voce and Harold Larwood were a scary bowling duo for England in the 1930s. They were especially famous for making Australian batters nervous during the Ashes series in 1932-33. Voce played 27 Tests, scoring 308 runs and taking 98 wickets. He was born on August 8, 1909, in Nottinghamshire. Voce’s teammate in the West Indies tour of 1930 was Wilfred Rhodes, a well-known all-rounder. It’s interesting to note that Rhodes, who was 53 years old at the time, had started playing for England ten years before Voce was even born.
4. James Anderson and Rehan Ahmed
James Anderson and Rehan Ahmed might become teammates soon. They could play together when England faces India in a five-Test series starting on January 25. Rehan Ahmed, who started playing cricket professionally in 2023, was born in Nottingham on August 13, 2004.
James Anderson, who is still playing at 41 years old, began his career for England in 2002 for one-day matches and in 2003 for Test matches. He has taken 690 wickets in 183 Test matches and hopes to get more wickets in India.
5. Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Shami
Sachin Tendulkar, a famous cricket player from India, played his last two cricket matches, called Tests, against West Indies in 2013. He ended his cricket career with 15,921 runs in 200 Tests and scored 51 centuries. In shorter matches, called ODIs, he scored 18,426 runs in 463 matches and got 49 centuries. Altogether, he scored 100 centuries in international cricket.
In the first Test of that series, a new player from Bengal named Mohammad Shami played his first Test match and took five wickets in one game. It’s interesting to note that Tendulkar started playing for India in November 1989, while Shami was born in September 1990, almost a year later. Shami got the chance to play two Tests with Tendulkar in his last matches before retiring.
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