Even more stunning was when Tendulkar, then just 16, brushed aside medical advice to take guard for the next ball. By his own admission, it was a "defining moment" in the Little Master's glorious career.
The schoolboy fell on the Sialkot pitch but rose as a man. While Tendulkar's prodigious talent became evident from an early age, it was often the steel that stood out.
His intense desire to win and a stubbornness that stopped him from taking a step back combined with natural skills and a calm, calculating head to make for a lethal machine.
"When you get hit (early in your career) you either lose or gain confidence. In my case, I gained confidence," Tendulkar would say later. "It was the fourth Test after three draws and we were in a spot of bother (38/4). I was expected to stay there and save the match." He was to bat for two hours that day and another two on the final day for a 57.
Navjot Singh Sidhu, who saw it all from the non-striker's end, remembers how the youngster wasn't even disoriented after that nasty blow, anticipating the yorker next ball and sending it scorching past him with an on-drive. "This is what happens to courageous people; they become achievers," Sidhu would say.
Tendulkar's success as a captain may not match those of the likes of Sourav Ganguly or Mahendra Singh Dhoni, but he was a leader in his own right.
He led by example. Ganguly has acknowledged that the Little Master showed that Indians could be competitive abroad too. He has also revealed how Tendulkar would remind others that they should not show pain to the opponents if hit.
While that underlying psychological one-upmanship has accompanied battles between bat and ball through the years, it still requires an attitude and intensity to practice it in the middle.
Tendulkar struck that note of defiance early in his career, as a 16-year-old schoolboy in Sialkot.
He never flinched while facing fast bowlers or their short-pitched stuff. In fact, Tendulkar relished the challenge and it manifested itself every now and then.
Waqar, Wasim Akram, Imran Khan, Alan Donald, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Curtley Ambrose... he has faced them all with aplomb but reserved his best for the Aussies, the most dominant team during his time.
His 114 as a 19-year-old on a pacy Perth pitch in 1992 is considered one of the finest innings to have been played there.
It was his second hundred in what was his first tour Down Under. He went back as a 30-year-old in 2004 to tell Lee & Co. that he still had an attitude and appetite for them. Of course, it's not just Aussie pacers who have felt the Tendulkar heat.
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