Will Arjun Tendulkar play instead of Jasprit Bumrah in IPL 2023?
For the first time in his career, since making his IPL debut in 2013, fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will be missing an entire season of the IPL as the five-time champions Mumbai Indians are left without their pace attack spearhead for the IPL 2023.
Owing to a back injury, which needed a surgery, Jasprit Bumrah, who last played in September last year, has been ruled out of action until August this year at least.
MI do, however, thank their stars that the other major signing from the IPL 2022 mega-auction, Jofra Archer, who didn’t play last year due to injury, is fit and available for the season and will head the pace attack in the absence of Bumrah.
With three days to go for the tournament to start, Paltans have not yet named their replacement player for Jasprit Bumrah. That is, though, not a significant aspect to look forward to, because the replacement players, whoever it would be, had gone unsold in the Indian Premier League 2023 auction, after not being retained by its franchise and not being picked in the auction, so he’s unlikely to be a first-choice starter for MI.
To replace Bumrah in the playing XI – as much as it’s impossible to conceive that there exits as “replacement” of Bumrah – Paltans will look on their bench and will find a number of youngsters, uncapped players, those who have done well in domestic cricket, but have little to no experience of the IPL.
One of those players is Arjun Tendulkar.
Arjun Tendulkar has been with the Mumbai Indians as a player for the past two seasons, but didn’t get to make his IPL debut.
He could, however, not only make his IPL debut this year but also leave a good impression on everyone – not least the fans who only identify him as the son of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar.
Arjun Tendulkar is creating an identity of his own now in the public eye. And certainly in the Mumbai’s management and coaching staff and captain Rohit Sharma – all of whom would have followed or tracked or at least saw him have an impressive debut domestic season with Goa.
After failing to make it into Mumbai’s domestic teams, Speedster made a move to Goa, where he immediately got to play in all three formats in domestic cricket.
A seam-bowling all-rounder, Arjun was brilliant with both bat and ball.
Like his father Sachin, Arjun Tendulkar hit a century on his Ranji Trophy debut this season
Being a pace-bowling all-rounder, this automatically would make Arjun Tendulkar a strong candidate to be part of MI’s XI in Indian Premier League 2023, especially since MI have failed to replace the void of Hardik Pandya, and now with Kieron Pollard retired from the IPL and Bumrah injured, Arjun Tendulkar is in line for his debut IPL season.
What about Arjun Tendulkar’s domestic record?
At Goa, Arjun flourished playing his first full domestic season. For Goa, Arjun got to play in all three formats in the domestic circuit and impressed everyone with his all-round performances: 12 wickets in 7 first-class matches; 8 wickets in 7 List-A matches; 10 wickets in 7 SMAT 2023 T20 matches. With the bat, he averaged 24 in FC cricket with a century on his Ranji debut.
Being a pacer, he might even thrive at the Wankhede. As seen in last season’s IPL and the recent India-Australia ODI, new ball pacers got prodigious swing and seam movement at the Wankhede, perhaps more than any other venue in India.
During the domestic season, he has worked hard on his bowling – his action, his run-up, and importantly the swing and seam movement he could generate. This could, in particular, be a key factor in MI selecting him in their strongest XI and could lead to potential success at the Wankhede, where there is a good amount of assistance for new ball bowlers.
