'Arjun Tendulkar is playing because...': Ex-Pakistan captain's blistering reaction to 'son can't reach Sachin's stature'
While Arjun Tendulkar's batting is yet to be experienced at full tilt, the youngster looks more suited to bowling.
Just two matches into the IPL 2023, Arjun Tendulkar has already become the cynosure of all eyes. Even when he is not bowling, or fielding, the cameras are on him, and why not? After all, he is the son of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, which makes it unavoidable for him to escape the hawkish eyes. Having said that, there aren’t many similarities between the two. For starters, Arjun is a left-arm fast bowler who can bat, whereas Sachin was the greatest batsman of all-time. However, that is not enough to keep him out of limelight. He has already become the toast of the nation and will continue to do so as long as he is playing the IPL.
Arjun passed the first two litmus tests of his IPL career in style. On his debut against Kolkata Knight Riders, the 23-year-old bowled two overs, finishing with 0/17 before finally arriving against Sunrisers Hyderabad, where Arjun defended 20 off the final over and in the process, picked up his maiden IPL wicket. Despite lacking speed, Arjun has shown promise and the belief is that he will only continue to grow further with time.
While Arjun's batting is yet to be experienced at full tilt, the youngster looks more suited to bowling. A couple of months ago, Arjun scored a century on Ranji Trophy debut emulating his father and more recently, MI uploaded a small clip of Arjun hitting it big in the nets. As the world hopes to see more of Arjun's batting, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif reckons the reason Arjun was picked by MI is because he is an all-rounder, and that had the 23-year-old been just a batter, the chances of him playing would have diminished due to unavoidable Sachin comparisons.
Reaction to Dr. Nauman Niaz's "Sachin's benchmark is so high that as a batter, his son couldn't have reached that stature," comment, Latif said: "Arjun must have seen a lot of Zaheer Khan, Wasim Akram, Ashish Nehra. Then he must also have bowled plenty to his father. See when Sachin used to bat, the likes of Ganguly, Sehwag, Dravid hardly got a chance. So, it's quite possible that everytime the father-son duo played at home, Arjun did most of the bowling," Latif said on his YouTube channel 'Caught Behind'.
"This could be a reason why he became a bowler. That must have ended up playing a role in Arjun's future. Arjun is representing Mumbai Indians because he is playing as an all-rounder. Had he come in as a batsman, he may not have gotten selected. An all-rounder is more in demand."