MUMBAI: Arjun Tendulkar's long wait to play for Mumbai Indians in the IPL finally ended on Sunday 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 on Sunday and who is mentor of the franchise and was in the dugout, played for MI from 2008 to 2013.
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Arjun replaced fellow left-arm 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 it went for five runs. Arjun was handed the MI cap by Rohit Sharma, who was the impact player in the game skippered by Suryakumar Yadav. Arjun had to wait for two seasons before he could take his IPL bow. He was bought in the 2021 auction for Rs 20 lakh before he was retained in the 2022 mega auction for Rs 30 lakh.
At the start of the 2022-23 domestic season, Arjun had quit Mumbai and moved to Goa seeking more game-time and scored his maiden First-Class century on his Ranji debut against Rajasthan, emulating dad Sachin, who had scored a ton against Gujarat in 1988.
