A day before India's 1000th ODI match, the legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar shared his thoughts about the evolution of the format in the past years. In what will be their 1000th ODI, the Rohit Sharma-led team will take on West Indies at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
India has played the maximum number of ODIs by any cricketing Team in the world. Out of 999, the Men in Blue have lost 431 matches and won 518 which also includes 2 World Cups in 1983 and 2011.
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In an interview to PTI, Tendulkar whose career started in the era that was dominated by the longest format of the game, the Tests, said that the dream was Test cricket, ODI wasn't even on his mind.
The former batting ace feels that the hype of ODIs and its biggest transformation happened in the 1996 World Cup. There was a visible change as a new dimension was given to ODIs, said Tendulkar.
The celebrated cricketer highlighted said that the ODI revolution in all its might began post-1996 with stadiums.
The 48-year-old who featured in the 200th, 300th, 400th, and until the 800th ODI for India went down the memory lane and recalled that the teams used to play ODIs in whites as late as 2000-01.
ODI fever started in the 1990s. on-field noticeable changes early to mid-90s were okay, post-1996 things changed at a rapid pace.
He also took to Twitter to wish the best to the Team who are set to play a 3 match ODI series against the Windies starting 6th Feb. In a video posted on the social media platform the cricketing legend congratulated BCCI the past and present Indian players for achieving the historic feat in 47 years of playing the format.