Mumbai Indians‘ bowling coach Shane Bond has been impressed with the start Arjun Tendulkar has had in his IPL career, and more so with the way he bounced back to deliver two good overs against Gujarat after getting a spanking in the previous game against Punjab Kings.
Arjun Tendulkar has been bowling 2 overs in the powerplay with the new ball, and has done well with the new ball. His only bad over in the 10 overs he’s bowled in 4 matches came against Punjab Kings when he got smoked for 31 runs by Sam Curran and Harpreet Singh Bhatia. Apart from that one forgettable over, which was a big learning for the 23-year-old, the left-arm pacer has done well.
Shane Bond reckoned Arjun Tendulkar did what was needed off him against Gujarat: against GT, the southpaw bowled 2 overs with the new ball and gave away only 9 runs with the wicket of Wriddhiman Saha.
Arjun’s bowling speeds have been around 126-130 KPH. He’s kept it at this range as he’s been looking for movement early in the match and Bond said they will work on increasing his speeds.
“He [Arjun Tendulkar] did well today, obviously after what happened in the last game. It’s never easy to step out onto the ground that is a Colosseum with a big crowd. We will work on increasing his pace, but he did all that was asked of him today,” Shane Bond said in the press conference after Mumbai Indians suffered a heavy defeat by the margin of 55 runs in Ahmedabad.
Arjun Tendulkar has 3 wickets to show in 4 matches in 9.5 over
Mumbai Indians have now conceded over 200 runs in back-to-back matches and lost both of them, after a streak of 3 wins in a row.
When asked about possible changes in the team, Shane Bond urged his bowlers to step up.
“It’s never easy on the back of a bad day. A few of our bowlers had bad days over the last few games. And that’s the thing with T20 cricket, where you got to have thick skin in a short memory and must come out. We must execute all our plans to find ourselves in the playoffs at the back end of the tournament. We just have to be better at what we do,” the MI bowling coach said.
Mumbai Indians, who have 6 points in 7 matches, are still in playoff contention. But they will have to win at least 4 or 5 matches of their remaining 7 games to remain alive in the playoff race.
