15th November is a memorable day in world cricket. On 15th November in the year 1989 two of the modern greats in world cricket debuted for India and Pakistan respectively. It was the first of the four-Test matches during India’s tour of Pakistan at the National Stadium, Karachi. For Pakistan, they had the young fast bowler Waqar Younis making his debut at the age of 17 years and 364 days. For India, it was a middle-order batsman of the age of 16 years and 205 days named Sachin Tendulkar. He is still the youngest Test debutant for India and at that time was the third youngest Test debutant in the world after Mushtaq Mohammad and Aaqib Javed.
The duo did not have much action on day one of the cricket careers as Pakistan batted first and scored 259/4 at stumps on day one. On the next day, they took the total to 409 thanks to a century from captain Imran Khan. Waqar batted at number eleven and was out first ball. Tendulkar got a chance to bowl and bowled one over for 10 runs.
Waqar bowled the second over of the Indian innings and for the first time, the world witnessed the magical bowling duo of Wasim and Waqar bowling in tandem. Wasim got the first breakthrough by scalping Navjot Singh Sidhu and soon Waqar got his maiden Test wicket as he got Sanjay Manjarekar nicked one to the wicketkeeper, Saleem Yousuf. India was soon 41 for the loss of four wickets and Tendulkar walked out to bat. He and the captain Mohammad Azharuddin added 32 runs for the 5th wicket. Tendulkar hit two boundaries in his way to 15 but on 15 he was bowled by a brilliant Waqar Younis in-swinger. Strong contributions from Ravi Shastri (45), Kapil Dev (55), and Kiran More (58*) saved the follow on for India as they posted 262 in their first innings. Waqar finished with four wickets on debut for 80 runs in 19 overs. Along with Manjarekar and Tendulkar, he also picked up Manoj Prabhakar and Kapil Dev.
Thanks to a quick century from Saleem Malik, Pakistan set a target of 453 for India who batted more than a day to save the match followed by Sanjay Manjarekar’s unbeaten hundred. Tendulkar did not get a chance to bat in the second innings as Waqar also bowled only two wicketless overs.
Along with these two legends, this Test match was also debuted match for the Indian forgotten fast bowler Salil Ankola who had a much shorter career and later moved to the world of tele and cinema.
