Sachin Tendulkar's five best performances before his international debut

Ranji Trophy debut, 1988:

Tendulkar was Mumbai’s highest run scorer in the 1988-89 season

The right-handed batsman made his Ranji Trophy debut at the age of 15. Vengsarkar, impressed by Tendulkar's performances, put a word to the selectors and gave him his big break to play for Mumbai against Gujarat in 1988.

He scored a century on his debut at the Wankhede and became the youngest Indian to score a first-class century on debut. He was also Mumbai's highest run-scorer in the 1988-89 season and made half-centuries in six of the seven matches he played and amassed 583 runs.

Though Mumbai crashed out during the semi-finals against Delhi, he ended with a batting average of 64.77. Tendulkar hit the Delhi bowler Madan Lal for a straight drive in one of the overs, which he says, was one of the most talked about things that evening.