Arjun Tendulkar was roped in by the Mumbai Indians (MI) franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 mega auction but had to wait quite a long to make it to the playing XI of the team. After sweating hard in the nets of the MI camp, The junior Tendulkar was finally given a chance in the 16th edition of the IPL when the Mumbai-based team faced Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Wankhede Stadium.
Legendary Indian cricketer and Arjun’s father Sachin Tendulkar couldn’t control his emotions and broke down into tears upon his son’s debut, revealed Ian Bishop while commentating during the MI versus Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) clash. Bishop also told how Sachin talked about the similarity between his and son Arjun’s debut with a floor manager. Notably, Sachin and Arjun also became the first father-son duo to play IPL after the latter’s debut.
“The floor manager had a word with Sachin, I won’t call out his name, the floor manager, he mentioned that he loved the fact that Arjun is now playing in the IPL. Sachin had tears in his eyes. And he said, you know when I bowled the first time in the IPL, my first over went for five. Arjun’s first over went for five as well. So Sachin had that in his mind all the way through,” said Bishop on air.
Arjun’s maiden wicket of the league came in the form of Bhuvneshwar Kumar during the match against SRH. The 23-year-old bowled exceptionally well in the contest and defended 20 runs off the last over to guide MI to victory. The performance by Arjun was hailed by many veteran cricketers.
Former India cricketer Ravi Shastri also praised Arjun in the post-match presentation but in a cheeky manner. He greeted Arjun by saying, “you’ve gone one up on Sachin”, reminding him that his father never picked a wicket in IPL. However, Arjun responded modestly and said: “Obviously it was great getting my first IPL wicket. I just had to focus on what was in hand, the plan and executing it.”
