3 Indian Cricket Players Who Had The Longest International Career

It would not be wrong to say that every athlete wants to have a long international career where he gets more time to represent his country. But for that, he needs to maintain his fitness and perform brilliantly with growing age! Despite age factors and changes in the game, certain players have represented their country for a long period and made some incredible contributions to Cricketing History.

Through this article, we are going to tell you about 3 Indian players who had the longest international cricket career in cricketing history:

3. Ashish Nehra (February 1999 to November 2017)

Ashish Nehra is known as one of the most talented left-arm bowlers from the Indian team who have represented Indian cricket team from 1999 to 2017 for 18 long years. He is among the list of bowlers who have a career span of more than 15 years. However, during this period, he was in and out of the team due to injury and fitness issues.

The Delhi-born left-arm fast bowler made his debut against Sri Lanka in 1999. You might not know, but he is on the list of bowlers who have played just 17 tests in a career span of 5 years due to injuries. However, irrespective of injury, he kept performing well for the Indian team in white ball format and one of the most lethal spells of his career came against England, where he picked 6 wickets by just conceding 23 runs in 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup. 

Ashish Nehra was part of India’s World Cup winning team in 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. After the 2011 World Cup, everybody thought that the career of a left-arm bowler would be over. But he again proved everyone wrong and made an outstanding return in the Indian team in the shortest format, where he was part of the squad for more than 18 months before announcing his retirement in 2017.

Ashish Nehra took 235 wickets in international cricket (44 in tests, 157 in ODIs and 34 in T20Is). 

2. Mohinder Amarnath (December 1969 to October 1989)

On number 2, we have name of former Indian cricketer Mohinder Amarnath, who has been remembered in the Indian cricket history for his match-winning performance against West Indies in 1983 ICC Cricket World Cup, where he not only scored crucial 26 runs in India's total but also picked 3 crucial wickets for the team in his 7 overs of the spell. 

Despite being a son of Former Indian captain Lala Amarnath, Mohinder Amarnath's cricketing career has gone through several ups and downs as after making his debut in 1969, Amarnath had to wait for 7 long years to get the opportunity to play in 1983 Cricket World Cup.

Amarnath retired from international cricket in 1989 before representing the Indian team in 63 Tests, scoring 4378 runs with 1984 runs in One Day Cricket with 78 wickets.

1. Sachin Tendulkar (November 1989 to 2013)

Sachin is not just a name, it's an emotion that people have lived with for 24 long years. Sachin Tendulkar is the pride of India and one of the main reasons behind the growth of Indian cricket on the international stage. The Mumbai-born batter is still considered one of the greatest batsmen in the world having 100 hundred to his name with 34,357 international runs. 

Tendulkar made his debut against Pakistan on November 15, 1989. When he was just 16 years old, he stood tall against one of the fierce bowling attacks of Pakistan team including Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Imran Khan. He grew as a batsman and became one of the best batters from the Indian team. The “God” of Indian cricket has served the nation for 24 long years before retiring from cricket in 2013 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.