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Arjun Tendulkar’s selection was one of the most talked about selections in the IPL auction. There was a lot of talk of him being selected due to his father’s influence on the Mumbai Indian’s team and that really had a lot of tongues wagging about the nepotism debate and whether cricket is being victim of nepotism too. For Arjun this was a life changing experience as he would get the opportunity to play alongside a lot of international cricketers and be in and around the squad and learn from the best and also be a net bowler and have a chance to impress the best players in and around the Mumbai Indians squad.
Arjun has been a topic of discussion pretty much ever since his birth as he was the son of the most famous cricketer ever to have come out of India. However, he has not quite lived up to the billing particularly in the domestic cricket setup. Though, it can also be argued that the pressure of being Sachin Tendulkar’s son can weigh heavily on anyone.
Arjun is a tall left arm seamer and a left-handed lower order batsman. He can generate decent pace and has good variation too. As a batsman, he can hit the ball a long way and take the game to the opposition lower down the order.
Mumbai Indians however is a wonderful franchise who have been 5-time winners of this competition and being picked for this kind of a franchise can be the high point of anyone’s life.
Unfortunately, Arjun’s hopes of playing a game for the franchise have taken a major hit as he has suffered an injury which has ruled him out of the remainder of the tournament.
As fate would have it, it has opened the doors for another seamer who has been impressing everyone in the domestic circuit to have a look in.
Simarjeet was also a part of the squad in the Indian tour to Sri Lanka and that would have taken his confidence to a big high as he would have rubbed shoulders with some of the most established stars of the Indian cricket scene. Simarjeet has been playing for Delhi and has been a big part of their bowling unit. He is a tall fast bowler who is known to get some swing early and do so at Decent pace. The wickets in the domestic circuit don’t necessarily assist swing bowling so it would have been a hard grind upwards for Simarjeet but he has definitely been a talking point of selectors for quite a long time. This may well be his opportunity to impress the likes of Rohit Sharma and learn from the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult who are perhaps two of the most effective bowlers in world cricket in all formats.
Mumbai Indians is currently engaged in a battle for the top 4 as they would be looking to make it into the qualifiers. They are five-time champions and the least you expect them to do is be in the race for the finals. But they have always been slow starters and multiple phases of the IPL has made them struggle in the IPL as they are not in the best shape right now as the tournament has begun again in the UAE but you know with them that you cannot count them out till the very end. This has been the hallmark of this great side and so they would be expected to come back and be a big factor in the final say. So those making Indian cricket prediction, do not write them off that early.
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