‘Since the day Arjun was born…’: AUS great’s take on Tendulkar jr. vs Sachin | Cricket

Arjun Tendulkar had to wait over two years to get his maiden IPL game, but when the time came, he couldn’t have asked for a better debut for Mumbai Indians. Arjun, 23, bowled two tidy overs against Kolkata Knight Riders and went one up against Sunrisers Hyderabad when he defended 20 runs bowling the final er, and in the process, picked up his maiden IPL wicket. Arjun’s wicket of Bhuvneshwar Kumar sent the internet into a complete meltdown as it marked the arrival of the next generation of Tendulkar. Who knows what all Arjun will go on to achieve but irrespective how of how great or not-so-great a cricketer he becomes, the youngster will always be compared to his father, the great legendary Sachin Tendulkar.

The likes of Sanjay Manjrekar, Mohinder Amarnath and Rohan Gavaskar have dealt with this pressure of expectations, and Arjun is no different. In fact, if anything, the load of Arjun will be nothing some the aforementioned greats, purely given the accomplishments of his father which is why former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson was mighty impressed with how level-headed he found Arjun to be in the two matches he saw him bowl.

“Look I’ve seen him around but I hadn’t really seen him bowl before until the first two games that he has played. It’s a super cool thing for him to be able to play with the expectations of being Sachin Tendulkar’s son here. Like in India obviously Sachin is a demigod really. The pressure that has been on Arjun Tendulkar to try and follow in his dad’s footsteps even though in different ways – as a left-arm fast bowler – is huge credit to him just to be able to take it on knowing the pressure that is going to be on him,” Watson said on the Grade Cricketer.

Sachin was an emotional bunch watching his son take baby steps towards what we hope turns out to be a fine cricketing career. The post-match comments, the special badge in the dressing room is all a testament to Arjun’s hard work finally paying off. Arjun has played just 2 matches for MI and is already in the limelight as much as, if not more, the likes of Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni. Like Watson mentioned, the expectations and pressure of playing knowing he will be compared with Sachin at almost every step of the way will pose a challenge that at times may even get mentally taxing, but at least the start has been promising, and Watto hopes these are signs of wonderful things to come.

“The two games he has come in, Mumbai have won as well which has also helped. I haven’t seen a lot of him apart from just being him around the MI dugout for the last couple of years but credit to be. Because since the day he was born and worked his way through the ranks as a cricketer, the pressure that he would have had to experience is something you can’t imagine. To come out and do very nicely in his first couple of games is very impressive,” said the former Australia World Cup winner.