Finally, after spending the last two seasons on the bench, Arjun Tendulkar got to make his debut for the Mumbai Indians in their IPL 2023 encounter against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday afternoon.
Rohit Sharma didn’t start in this match as he had a stomach bug. In came Arjun Tendulkar, who is a pace-bowling all-rounder. MI also handed a debut cap to South African Duan Jansen, the twin brother of Marco Jansen, replacing Jason Behrendorff in the line-up.
Arjun Tendulkar was given his MI debut cap by Rohit Sharma
Arjun played the last domestic season for Goa after moving away from Mumbai.
He has a decent record in domestic cricket: 12 wickets in 7 first-class matches; 8 wickets in 7 List-A matches; 10 wickets in 7 SMAT 2023 T20 matches. Like his father Sachin Tendulkar, Arjun also hit a century on his Ranji Trophy debut last year.
The 23-year-old has been bowling with great intensity in the nets and now finally gets the reward of his hard work in the past year.
Fans were happy to see Arjun Tendulkar get his maiden IPL match:
Here is how fans on Twitter reacted to Arjun getting his IPL debut:
Go well – Arjun Tendulkar!
A debut for him after a long time, hopefully a great match for him! pic.twitter.com/PINv8dYQY2
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) April 16, 2023
Arjun Tendulkar to make his ipl debut today, is this the beginning of nepotism in cricket?! pic.twitter.com/HIl02uiMph
— 𝙍𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤 (@iromeostark) April 16, 2023
Marco Jansen and Duan Jansen are the first twins to play in IPL.
Sachin Tendulkar and Arjun Tendulkar are the first father-son pair to play in IPL.
Coincidentally both happen at SAME time – with both Arjun and Duan debuting for MI today.
— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats) April 16, 2023
https://twitter.com/Hydrogen_45/status/1647543530141941760?s=20
Arjun Tendulkar making his debut.
His whole family in the ground. pic.twitter.com/9Fvts1cPoN
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) April 16, 2023
When Sachin Tendulkar heard the news about Arjun Tendulkar debut : pic.twitter.com/wIQKKDkGTL
— Pranjul Sharma (@pranjultweet) April 16, 2023
Patience and persevrance delivers best out of you!!#ArjunTendulkar pic.twitter.com/P0lo44iCQ0
— Mahipal Charan (@MP_Charan96) April 16, 2023
Arjun Tendulkar receiving the Mumbai Indians cap from Rohit Sharma.pic.twitter.com/jieLS4bQEQ
— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) April 16, 2023
Go well boi #ArjunTendulkar #MivsKKR
— Jack (@Urs_jack10) April 16, 2023
That moment brother sister 💙 #MumbaiIndians #ArjunTendulkar pic.twitter.com/Fjqk60Psi0
— kalingashree panda🇮🇳 (@kalingashree) April 16, 2023
Go well #ArjunTendulkar 💙🫶 #MIvsKKR pic.twitter.com/1caVxjPdeg
— Teresa_Christian (@Teresa_christi9) April 16, 2023
For all the pressure this kid had over the years for being someone’s son, what a beautiful first over.
A fantastic start to his career. #ArjunTendulkar
— Vijay Raj (@rajvj) April 16, 2023
https://twitter.com/AnjaliiSandilya/status/1647539345253859330?s=20
From watching his father realising his dream of lifting a WC to making an @IPL debut at his very home ground, Wankhede stadium….
You’ve surely lived a dream, Arjun Tendulkar.
Just be as humble and loving as your dad always & do well with @mipaltan. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/r3dwVcnHbP
— North Stand Gang – Wankhede (@NorthStandGang) April 16, 2023
Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and elected to field first.
He said, “Will love to bowl first, the wicket looks dry. The ball comes on to the bat nicely later. Rohit is out, he has a stomach bug. Time to put up a good show. We are going with one change, Duan Jansen comes in, rest all is same.”
Nitish Rana said: “We were going to bat first anyways. The mood in the dressing room is good, need to improve our bowling. We believe we can chase 200-210. The ball might turn in the second innings I think. One player can’t win you a tournament, it’s a team sport. It’s good for us, that everyone is scoring runs. We’ll target to score around 180 on this wicket, we are playing with the same team.”
Teams:
Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Venkatesh Iyer, N Jagadeesan, Nitish Rana(c), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakaravarthy
Mumbai Indians (Playing XI): Ishan Kishan(w), Cameron Green, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tim David, Nehal Wadhera, Arjun Tendulkar, Hrithik Shokeen, Piyush Chawla, Duan Jansen, Riley Meredith
