After spending two seasons on the bench, all-rounder Arjun Tendulkar is probably going to get to make his Indian League debut in the upcoming IPL 2023 season.
He has had a good domestic season across formats and hence MI, who have lost the services of fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Jhye Richardson due to injuries, could be tempted to hand the 23-year-old his Premier League debut.
Arjun Tendulkar hit a century on his Ranji debut for Goa
But, as usual, the talks of Arjun Tendulkar being the son of Sachin Tendulkar will invariably follow him, with his cricket abilities and form in domestic cricket being the secondary sentence in conversations among fans and commentators.
Here are 2 important reasons why Arjun Tendulkar could have a big impact in the IPL 2023:
Arjun is a Seam-bowling all-rounder
Although MI splashed INR 17.5 crore on Australia seam-bowling all-rounder Cameron Green, with Archer, Behrendorff, Tim David, Brevis, and Stubbs also being in the squad, there is a possibility that Green could be subjected to carrying drinks in Indian Premier League 2023 as MI opt for Arjun Tendulkar as the pace-bowling all-rounder.
Ahead of the last domestic season, the youngster made the move from Mumbai to Goa because of a lack of opportunities at the Mumbai team. 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.
He hogged the limelight with his bat too: Arjun hit a maiden FC century on his Ranji debut, just like his father, Sachin, did all those years ago.
He’s tall, can swing the ball, can hit the deck hard, and can bat and bat well. Tendulkar has all the ingredients to become a superstar for Mumbai based franchise and possibly for India as well in the future.
MI are back to playing at the Wankhede
As mentioned, Arjun Tendulkar has worked hard on his bowling, his action, his run-up, and importantly the swing and seam movement he produces. This could, in particular, be a key factor in MI selecting him in their XI and could lead to potential success at the Wankhede, where there is a good amount of assistance for new ball bowlers, as was seen in last year’s Indian League, in which fast bowlers bowling in the powerplay were really threatening at the Wankhede.
As the Indian Premier League returns to its traditional home-and-away format in India for the first time since 2019, MI will play their 7 home league matches at the Wankhede and Arjun could have bumper success here. The raucous, passionate, Mumbai crowd has been MI’s strength, their 12th man, over the years and have fully supported their players, and one can expect they will be cheering loudly for their local boy Arjun as well.
Mumbai Indians IPL 2023 full squad:
Rohit Sharma (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Dewald Brevis, Tilak Varma, Jofra Archer, Tim David, Mohd Arshad Khan, Ramandeep Singh, Hrithik Shokeen, Arjun Tendulkar, Tristan Stubbs, Kumar Kartikeya, Jason Behrendorff, Akash Madhwal, Cameron Green, Piyush Chawla, Duan Jansen, Vishnu Vinod, Shams Mulani, Nehal Wadhera, Raghav Goyal
