It has been a decent start to his Indian Premier League (IPL) career for Arjun Tendulkar. With a section of the fans questioning the opportunities that he has got and wondering whether it is nepotism that he has got him so far, the left arm seam bowling all-rounders has chosen to respond with his performances.
After a decent debut in which he bowled a superb first over, he continued his good performance in his second match for the Mumbai Indians against the Sunrisers Hyderabad and showed the world how he merits a place in the playing 11 following his good performance for Goa in domestic cricket especially in the white-ball leg of the competition.
He not only bowled brilliantly with the new ball but returned to pick a wicket in the final over of the match where he was trusted by the MI skipper Rohit Sharma to defend 20 runs. SRH's Bhuvneshwar Kumar became his first-ever scalp and Arjun finished with figures of 1/18 from his 2.5 overs.
Post the match, team's head coach Mark Boucher showered praise on his performance.
"I asked the boys to set the tone if they got the new ball in hand and that's exactly what happened. So, well done Arjun, for doing exactly that. And then, in the last over, to hold your nerve in half stressful situation. Well done, Champ," Boucher can be heard saying in a video uploaded on MI's official social media handle.
The clip is from MI's dressing room celebration after the match where each team tends to recognise their own Player of the Match other than the official award and the Mumbai apparently picked Arjun for his performance against the Orange Army. He received a special felicitation from his father, Sachin Tendulkar, a MI and Team India legend.
Senior Tendulkar can even be heard saying: "Finally a Tendulkar has an IPL wicket.”