Why are MI not picking Arjun Tendulkar?
Mumbai Indians had a rough start, conceding two big losses to Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), before they bounced back in a last-ball nail-biting thriller against Delhi Capitals (DC) to register their first win of the season and get on the points table.
The lack of stability and selection in the Mumbai Indians team has been conspicuous, as shown by that fact that 15 players have played in these 3 matches while there was injury concern with only one – Jofra Archer.
Mumbai have also not yet tried out MI Speedster, the young seam-bowling all-rounder in their side while their choice before Arjun Tendulkar, which is Arshad Khan, hasn’t lived up to the hype yet.
Arjun, who now plays domestic cricket for Goa, is coming off an impressive season where he starred with both bat and ball. The 23-year-old son of the great Sachin Tendulkar, Arjun has also been bowling with high intensity in the nets.
He’s tall, can swing the ball, can hit the deck hard, can bat and bat well. But he’s been consigned to the bench in the last two seasons and now 3 matches where MI have struggled in their pace department.
Arjun Tendulkar domestic record and T20 stats:
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. Arjun also hit a century on his Ranji Trophy debut, like his father Sachin did on his Ranji debut.
So why has Arjun Tendulkar not been given his IPL debut yet?
Arjun has not yet made his IPL debut.
MI have preffered to play Arshad Khan over Arjun
MI bought Arshad in the IPL 2022 mega-auction and have tracked his work in the past couple of years. In two matches so far, he’s bowled 5.3 overs, leaked 75 runs and taken only 1 wicket. But MI were impressed by his performance in the past couple of years and hence gave him chance in IPL 2023 ahead of him.
MI want to have batting depth
MI believes that Arshad and Shokeen provide a bit of a batting depth over Arjun. Shokeen made his debut last year and in domestic cricket, showed that he can hold his own with the bat and vs RCB too. Arshad has a decent strike rate of 130 in T20 matches and 125 in List-A cricket.
