Sachin Tendulkar has for the first time admitted that at 39 he may not have much cricket left in him and will reassess his cricketing future next month.
Tendulkar’s retirement has been a topic of debate for quite some time now and the batting great said though he does not have any immediate plans, the thought of retirement has been on his mind.
He said that taking a decision on retirement after playing the game for close to 23 years will be a “hard one” and he will go by what his heart says.
“The moment of retirement is going to be hard because I haven’t experienced anything close to what I might go through when I retire. It depends on what my heart tells me then. I need not take a call right now. When I play in November, I will reassess things,” he said.
“I am 39 and I don’t think I have plenty of cricket left in me. But it depends on my frame of mind and my physical ability to deliver. When I feel that I am not delivering what is needed, and then I will re-look at the scheme of things. I am already 39 and no one expects me to go on playing forever,” Tendulkar told a TV channel.
India play a four-match home Test series against England starting on November 15 in Ahmedabad.
Tendulkar, who holds almost all the records in world cricket after playing 190 Tests and 463 ODIs, said that it would be a tough call for him to hang his bat and he will go by what his heart says.
“I don’t know. It is going to be hard because I haven’t experienced anything close to what I might go through when I retire. I cannot relate this moment with any other moment in my life. It will be a tough call. I will go with what my heart says,” said Tendulkar, who has scored 15,533 in Tests and 18,426 runs in ODIs.