SR Tendulkar now owns the record for most appearances in tests, when he made his appearance against Sri Lanka at Sara Oval today, in the third test of the ongoing test series. It is his 169^th test and he wrested the record from SR Waugh of Australia who has made 168 test appearances

He made his test debut under the captaincy of K Srikkanth against Pakistan at Karachi in Nov 1989. He scored 15 runs on his debut.

The break up of SR Tendulkar’s 168 appearances read as under – 29 vs Australia {2748 runs}, 07 vs Bangladesh {820 runs}, 24 vs England {2150 runs}, 19 vs New Zealand {1406 runs}, 18 vs Pakistan {1057 runs}, 22 vs South Africa {1415 runs}, 24 vs Sri Lanka {1900 runs}, 16 vs West Indies {1328 runs} and 09 vs Zimbabwe {918 runs}

SR Tendulkar’s world record appearance against Sri Lanka at Sara Oval in the third test of the ongoing test series has fetched another record. He earned the distinction of becoming the first cricketer to play 25 tests against Sri Lanka. He needs another 100 runs to total 2000 runs against Sri Lanka.

SR Tendulkar has already made 29 test appearances agains Australia and his 25 test appearances against Sri Lanka has made him the 20^th cricketer to appear in 25 plus tests against two or more specific oppositions.

SR Tendulkar is the fourth Indian test cricketers to achieve this distinction. Others are – N Kapil Dev {vs Eng – 27: vs Pak – 29 and vs Win -25}, SM Gavaskar {vs Eng – 38: vs Win – 27} and DB Vengsarkar {vs Eng – 26: vs Win – 25}

SR Tendulkar’s appearance in the third test at Sara Oval in the third test of the ongoing test series is his 95^th test on away soil and he is the first batsman to appear in 95 tests on away soil. He has already played 152 innings on away soil, his 150^th innings was in the first innings of the Galle test, the first test of the series. SR Tendulkar is the only batsman in the annals of test cricket to play 150 plus test innings.

SR Tendulkar’s away test record prior to the start of the third test read thus – 94 tests, 152 innings, 7724 runs, 27 hundreds. All these parameters are a record for a batsman who has played away tests.

SR Tendulakr has scored 7724 runs from 94 tests on away soil and 6018 runs from 74 tests on home soil and has earned the distinction of becoming the only batsman to score 6000 plus runs on away and home soil.

SR Tendulkar’s 168 test appearances under various captains are – M Azharuddin – {47 tests – 3767 runs}, MS Dhoni {14 tests : 1454 runs}, R Dravid {21 tests : 1304 runs}, SC Ganguly {42 tests : 3768 runs}, A Kumble {12 tests : 904 runs}, V Sehwag {03 tests : 276 runs}, K Srikkanath {04 tests : 215 runs} and under himself {25 tests : 2054 runs}

SR Tendulkar is one of the 47 captains in the world to have led a country on 25 or more tests. He is the seventh Indian captain to earn this distinction. Others are – SC Ganguly {49}, M Azharuddin {47}, SM Gavaskar {47}, MAK Pataudi {40}, N Kapil Dev {34} and R Dravid {25}

SR Tendulkar has an aggregate of 2054 runs while leading India which makes him one of the 34 captains in the world to total 2000 plus runs as captain. He is the fifth Indian captain to achieve such a feat. Others are – SM Gavaskar {3449}, M Azharuddin {2856}, SC Ganguly {2561} and MAK Pataudi {2424}