Following the footsteps of his father, Arjun Tendulkar created history and made a blockbuster start to his Ranji Trophy career with a stunning century. The Mumbai-based player, who is currently playing for Goa, emulated his legendary father Sachin Tendulkar by registering a stunning century making his first-class debut on Day 2 of the Group C Ranji Trophy encounter on Wednesday.
Arjun Tendulkar walked out to bat at number 7 and played a blockbuster knock of 120 runs from 207 balls in his maiden innings in the Ranji Trophy, with the help of 16 fours and 2 sixes.
Master Blaster Finally Reacts To Arjun’s Century
Arjun has been receiving praise from all corners for his amazing performance. However, the best reaction came from Arjun’s father Sachin Tendulkar. Speaking at Infosys at 40 event, Master Blaster was asked about the knock of Arjun, responding to this, he said:
“It is a tough question nobody has asked me. As a father, I remember hearing my father tell someone – this was when I had started playing for India, & someone introduced him to ‘Sachin Father kar ke’ and he heard that then my father’s friend asked him how he feels. He said it’s the proudest moment of my life because this is what fathers want to be – to be recognised by what your child has done.”
He added: “Arjun has not led a normal childhood; being a son of a cricketer who has been for quit some time, it is not so easy and that is the only reason when I retired and was facilitated by the media in Mumbai, my message to them was: allow Arjun to fall in love with cricket, give him that opportunity. You can follow up with various statements after he has performed. Don’t put pressure on him because I never had pressure from my parents. My parents gave me the freedom to go out and express myself, there was no pressure of expectations. It was only encouragement and support and how could we go and better ourselves and that is what I wanted him to do. I kept telling him that it’s going to be challenging.”
Just like Sachin, Arjun had also started his domestic career in Mumbai. However, he shifted to Goa after not getting enough chances to play for Mumbai, earlier this year. He has only played seven List A matches and nine T20s for Mumbai and Goa, so far in his Ranji Trophy career. After shifting his base to Goa, Arjun has now played all three formats for his new team. Arjun has kickstarted his first-class career on a brilliant note and will hope to continue his form.