Arjun Tendulkar makes IPL debut

Arjun Tendulkar’s long wait to play for Mumbai Indians in the IPL finally ended last week when he made his debut against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Wankhede Stadium. In the process he and batting great Sachin Tendulkar became the first father-son pair to play in the IPL. Tendulkar Sr, who would have been a proud man and who is mentor of the franchise and was in the dug out, played for MI from 2008 to 2013.
Arjun replaced fellow leftarm seamer Arshad Khan in the starting XI and opened the bowling for MI from the North Stand End. Arjun bowled two overs and conceded 17 runs in the process. He conceded just five runs in his first over and troubled KKR openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Narayan Jagadeesan. Incidentally, Tendulkar Sr’s first over in the IPL too was against KKR and he too conceded five runs in his first over. In the second over, Arjun was hit for a four and six by centurion Venkatesh Iyer as he ended up conceding 13 runs.
Arjun was handed the MI cap by Rohit Sharma, who was the impact player in the game skippered by Suryakumar Yadav. Coincidently, Tendulkar Sr was the one who had given Sharma the cap on his Test debut in 2013 against West Indies at Eden Gardens. Arjun had to wait for two seasons before he could take his IPL bow. He was bought in the 2021 auction for Rs 20,00,000 before he was retained in the 2022 mega auction for Rs 30,00,000.