Zimbabwe's Brendan Taylor beats Sachin Tendulkar's world record for longest ODI career, but there's a catch

Zimbabwean wicketkeeper-batter Brendan Taylor established a new benchmark for endurance in men's one-day internationals when he took part in the opening clash of a three-match bilateral contest against Australia at Harare Sports Club. Spanning 22 years and 148 days since his 2004 debut, the 40-year-old's tenure officially eclipsed Sachin Tendulkar's previous standard of 22 years and 91 days, which had stood unbeaten since 2012.

Behind them on the historical duration list sit Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya (21 years, 184 days), Pakistan's Javed Miandad (20 years, 272 days), and fellow countryman Sean Williams (20 years, 187 days). Across 208 ODI outings, Taylor has compiled a national record of 11 centuries.

However, Taylor's achievement featured an unconventional road, having stepped away from the international arena in 2021 before being handed a three-and-a-half-year ban in 2022 due to anti-doping and anti-corruption infractions. He returned to action in 2025 ahead of Zimbabwe co-hosting the 2027 ODI World Cup alongside Namibia and South Africa.

Despite conceding the longevity record, Tendulkar still leads the format with 463 matches and 18,426 runs, alongside his 15,921 Test runs. Meanwhile, Joe Root recently surpassed Tendulkar for the most Test half-centuries during a clash with Pakistan at Edgbaston, leaving the English batter roughly 1,600 runs shy of Tendulkar's all-time Test aggregate despite going without a hundred across six recent Tests against Pakistan and New Zealand.

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