Arjun Tendulkar is becoming a regular feature in the nets. The son of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar has already bowled to England batsmen and the Indian Women’s team at Lord’s Cricket ground this year and for the past couple of days, he has been bowling to Indian batsmen at the Wankhede.
Though this is not the first time Arjun bowled to Indian batsmen, the improvement in his bowling was visible as he showed himself to be quicker than they anticipated a few times. After bowling to likes of Indian skipper Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Kedar Jadhav and Ajinkya Rahane on Friday the lanky left-arm seamer was seen hustling in again from the Media end and bowling to Rohit Sharma.
The six-feet tall Arjun tested the in form Indian vice-captain with his nagging line and also rapped him on the pads once to get a boost. He bowled to Rohit for nearly half an hour, along with Indian strike bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar and other net bowlers. Later he bowled to Dhawan again. Then he took a breather and shifted to another net and had some light moments with India players before gripping the ball again.
He was watched by India coach Ravi Shastri and bowling coach Bharat Arun. With no left-arm seamer in the 15-member Indian squad for the three ODIs against New Zealand, Arjun provided variety to batsmen as they play the Kiwis in the first ODI on Sunday here.
Arjun has been to the Indian team’s practice sessions many times when his father Sachin was playing and has also bowled to them in the nets before. He has also bowled in the Mumbai Indians practice sessions during the IPL.
The 18-year-old, who stays near Lord’s stadium in London, bowled to the England team as they were preparing for the Ashes in 2015. In July this year he almost gave England’s wicket-keeping batsman Jonny Bairstow an injury scare in Lord’s as they were preparing for the Test series against South Africa. He had also bowled to the Women’s team before their ICC World Cup final against England.
Last month Arjun had made it to the Mumbai U-19 squad for the JY Lele invitational tournament. He has also represented Mumbai in Under-16 cricket in 2015-16.
