Arjun Tendulkar spent his second straight IPL season with the Mumbai Indians on the bench. After two years, with the tournament’s most-successful franchise, the 22-year-old son of cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar is yet to play his first match. 

Arjun was picked by Mumbai Indians in IPL 2021 for his base price of Rs 20 lakh. In the 2022 mega-auction, the left-arm pacer went for Rs 30 lakh. 

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However, he is yet to make his IPL debut. Mumbai Indians were slammed on social media after their last league game against the Delhi Capitals for benching Arjun for one more season. 

“Sad thing is some people mocking him as failure cricketer even before he started his career.The burden of legacy is not an easy thing on this YOUNGESTER,” one Twitter user said. 

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“Arjun Tendulkar deserved a chance. He can clock a speed of 135km/hr in nets but Mumbai just wasting his talent,” another one tweeted. 

His father, Sachin Tendulkar, however, said that he does not interfere in selections. The ‘God of Cricket’ played for the Mumbai Indians until retiring from all forms in 2013. He is now the icon for the team. 

“This is a different question. What I am thinking or what I feel is not important. The season is already over,” Tendulkar said at a show ‘SachInsight’, when asked whether he would have liked to watch Arjun play this year.

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He further gave a message to Arjun, urging him to work hard. 

“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,” Tendulkar further added. 

In 78 IPL games, all for the Mumbai Indians, Sachin Tendulkar scored 2334 runs at an average of 34.84 and strike rate just below 120. He won the orange cap in 2010. 

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“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,” Tendulkar stressed.

In his career so far, the 22-year-old Arjun has only played two T20 games for his domestic side Mumbai and featured in the ‘T20 Mumbai’ league.