As reported in the Indian Express on Thursday, Mumbai cricketer Arjun Tendulkar, who also the son of the legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been selected in India’s under-19 squad for the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka.
Arjun has also been selected for the four-day matches and not the one-dayers. The Subroto Banerjee-coached will be led by Delhi’s Anuj Rawat in the longer format, the report added. He was part of the core group of U-19 cricketers who attended a recent camp at Zonal Cricket Academy and was watched by the junior team selectors.
Left-arm pacer Arjun turned 18 in September last year. He was part of Mumbai’s Under-19 squad in the Cooch Behar Trophy last season where he picked up two five-wicket hauls and a four-wicket haul. He finished the tournament with 18 wickets overall with an average of 25.22 for Mumbai. Both his five-wicket hauls included the wickets of the opposition’s top four batsmen.
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Arjun’s all-around abilities also caught the eye during Cricket Club of India’s tour to Australia last year, where his consistent performance caught quite a bit of media attention.
As quoted in ABC news then, Tendulkar Jr. said, “I used to play taekwondo, cricket football, swimming, and somehow cricket kicked in and everything else took a back seat. I just got stronger, grew taller and I loved bowling fast from my childhood. I thought I may as well be a quick bowler because there aren’t many in India.”
The young fast bowler was also part of the senior team’s net sessions, watched by India head coach Ravi Shastri and bowling coach Bharat Arun. He bowled to the Indian batsmen at the nets at Wankhede Stadium soon ahead of the three-match ODI series against New Zealand last year. He also caught the attention when bowling to the English team during their nets session at Lord’s ahead of the South Africa series, when a toe-crushing yorker to Johnny Bairstow caused an injury scare.
The India A team’s tour of Sri Lanka is scheduled for next month.
