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Another season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has ended but one of the biggest disappointments for cricket fans was that they were not able to see the son of legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar — Arjun Tendulkar — make his much-awaited IPL debut for Mumbai Indians (MI). The young bowling all-rounder was bought by MI for Rs 30 lakh during the accelerated part of the IPL 2022 mega auction in February but did not feature in a single game of the cash-rich franchise showpiece.
MI fielded a new-look squad of young and uncapped talents like Tilak Varma, Ramandeep Singh, Sanjay Yadav, and Kumar Kartikeya, but many fans expected to see Arjun in action, given that MI were the first team to get eliminated from the tournament this season.
Meanwhile, Mumbai's bowling coach Shane Bond has opened up on the non-selection of Arjun in the playing XI by stressing the fact that the young cricketer needs to improve his batting and fielding. "He's got some work to go. When you're playing for a team like Mumbai, making the squad is one thing but entering the playing XI is another. He still has a lot of hard work and development to do," Bond told Sportskeeda.
"When you play at this level, there's a fine line between giving everyone a game... but you have to earn your spot too. Arjun needs to work on his batting and fielding before finding a place on the team. Hopefully, he can make those progressions and earn a spot in the team," he added.
22-year-old Arjun has only played two T20 games for his domestic side Mumbai while also featuring in the 'T20 Mumbai' league. Despite being relatively inexperienced, the young player's non-selection was a hot topic of debate when Mumbai played their last fixture against Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
Earlier, Sachin himself revealed the advice he gave to his son, saying that he should focus on his game instead of thinking about getting a chance in the eleven. "This is a different question. What I am thinking or what I feel is not important. The season is already over," Sachin said at a show 'SachInsight' when asked whether he would have liked to watch Arjun play this year.
"And if we speak about selection, I have never involved myself in selection. I leave all these things to the (team) management because that is how I have always functioned," Sachin reiterated.
"And my conversation with Arjun has always been that the path is going to be challenging, it is going to be difficult. You started playing cricket because you are in love with cricket, continue to do so, continue to work hard and results will follow," he further added.
