Sachin Tendulkar's Jersey Number: Why He Wore #10

Walk into any cricket shop in Mumbai and you’ll still find replica India jerseys with a single number on the back: 10. Sachin Tendulkar wore it in ODIs from 1989 to 2012 and in T20Is from 2006 to 2012, and more than a decade after he retired, that number still sells.

Jersey numbers in cricket

Cricket handles shirt numbers differently than football or basketball does.

• Test cricket has never really used numbers on the whites. They show up on training kit but aren’t part of the Test playing uniform.
• ODI and T20I squads adopted numbers as broadcasters needed a fast way for viewers to tell players apart on screen.
• The ICC assigns squad numbers for major tournaments, and countries tend to keep the same number with an established player across cycles.

Sachin’s number 10

There’s no official record of why Tendulkar picked 10 specifically. What’s clear is how deeply it stuck. Fans have bought and worn replica jerseys with that number for decades, and it remains one of the best-selling numbers in cricket merchandise even now.

Why the number carries weight

In football, the number 10 shirt tends to go to the player a team builds around: Pelé, Maradona, and the list goes on. Tendulkar’s number took on a similar meaning in Indian cricket. He was the batter the innings rested on, the one people planned their evenings around.

For over two decades, that’s roughly what happened whenever he walked out to bat. Television audiences in India reportedly spiked when he came to the crease and dropped when he got out, an unusual pattern for a sport where eleven players share the workload.

Who wears 10 now

For a short spell after Tendulkar’s retirement the number stayed in use, and Shardul Thakur wore it on his ODI debut in 2017. The backlash from fans prompted the BCCI to effectively keep No. 10 out of circulation as a tribute to Tendulkar. There is still no formal jersey-retirement rule in Indian cricket, but in practice the board has reserved the number since then, so no India player has worn it in the years since.

Beyond India

The number travels with the association wherever cricket is followed, not just at home. Fans in England, Australia, South Africa, and Sri Lanka recognize the number 10 on India’s blue kit as shorthand for the “Little Master” without needing to see a name on the shirt. Few numbers in the sport carry that kind of instant recognition outside the country that made them famous.