Will Arjun Tendulkar play for Mumbai Indians in IPL 14?
Arjun Tendulkar has drawn the limelight since his early age, not because of his extraordinary display of cricketing skills or for anything, but his connection with the legendary Indian cricket player Tendulkar.
Son of Sachin Tendulkar, Arjun like his father loves cricket and therefore decided on it to carry forward as a profession. Likewise, in the latest IPL auction, Arjun Tendulkar got his maiden call up in the five-time IPL champion Mumbai Indians team captained by Rohit Sharma.
Mumbai Indians camp secured Arjun Tendulkar at a price tag of Rs 20 lakh, which was the base price for the player. However, since his inception in the Mumbai Indians team, there was a lot of hype among senior Tendulkar fans and cricket enthusiasts.
Arjun Tendulkar had already mentioned that this has been like a dream come true to be representing Mumbai Indians in IPL, however, the question arises, is whether junior Tendulkar would get to feature in a star-studded Mumbai Indians line up and if he does, which position he would play.
Like Father Arjun Tendulkar is elated to feature in the Mumbai Indians team. However, he has been warming the bench so far in the IPL 2021. Mumbai Indians which was once known to bring in youngsters and make build them into champion cricketers like Jasprit Bumrah is no longer holding that reputation any more.
Mumbai Indians now have a settled team, with overcrowded superstars from all over the world. Also, this is the initial phase of IPL matches with the points table at stake. In such circumstance, it is much unlikely that Mumbai Indians would like to experiment much with their settled lineups unless there are any injury concerns.
Also, even if there is any injury concern, like for like replacement would be the preferred choice of the Mumbai Indians team management. In such a scenario, Arjun Tendulkar coming to the first XI of the Mumbai Indians team anytime sooner is much unlikely.
Now coming to the performance, Arjun Tendulkar has a fair bit of experience in the state-level competitions with some mixed performances with bat and ball. He is also yet to make his debut and mark in First-Class and List A Cricket.
With an air of deterrence blowing around the country over issues like nepotism, many raised eyebrows when Arjun Tendulkar was inducted into the Mumbai Indians camp without even playing first-class cricket. Therefore there will be huge pressure mounting on the junior Tendulkar to perform from the word go even if he manages to play for MI this IPL.
Talking about the practicality of Arjun Tendulkar playing for Mumbai Indians, there is no dearth of seasoned and talented allrounders in Mi camp with three all-rounders Hardik, Krunal Pandya and Kieron Pollard already in the team. If anyone suffers injury then, New Zealand all-rounder Jimmy Neesham will feature in the team. If at all MI team management decide not to bring in another all-rounder, they would probably love to bring in Chris Lynn to further strengthen their already enviable batting lineup.
In the bowling lineup also there is no space for inexperienced Arjun Tendulkar to sneak in with the likes of Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Rahul Chahar already sitting firmly with good performances in few games they had played.
However, there is a ray of light at the end of the tunnel. With all the possible scenario in consideration, Arjun Tendulkar may still feature in the Mumbai Indians team if the team management chose to play with their already settled lineup.
And that may happen only if Mumbai Indians manage to confirm a place in the top two of the IPL 14 points table with few more games left in hand.
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11/27/2020
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