Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar’s son Arjun Tendulkar was on Thursday included into the the India Under-19 squad, which is scheduled to play the two four-day matches in Sri Lanka next month.
Arjun, a left-arm seamer, was a part of the Mumbai Under-19 squad last year in the Cooch Behar Trophy where he scalped 18 wickets. Tendulakr has been steadfast with his dedication towards improving his son’s cricketing skills. Such was his dedication that the former India captain sent his son to England to bowl at England batsmen in net session during the England-South Africa series.
It was during one of these sessions that Arjun yorked Jonny Bairstow to cause an injury scare ahead of the Test match against South Africa at Lord’s last year.
Arjun has only been named in the four-day squad, which will be led by Delhi’s Anuj Rawat. He’s not found a place in the one-day squad, which will be led by Aryan Juyal in the five-match series.
Arjun’s inclusion was hailed by Sachin Tendulkar fans, but there were many who attributed his selection for India Under-19 to nepotism. One Twitetr user Ganeshan Iyer wrote, “Arjun Tendulkar is an average bowler. He runs, and delivers the ball with a weird action. Thanks to his father’s recommendations, he is now part of the U-19 squad- and hundreds of more talented bowlers get ignored. Remember, there was someone called Rohan Gavaskar. Another user Nandita Ghoshal tweeted, “After Bollywood, Nepotism spreads its wings in sports too.” “There are many under19 cricket Players who waiting for a chance… What a India yaar…. ~politician ka beta politician ~Acter ka beta acter ~Business man ka beta business man ~poor ka beta poor ~Cricket Player ka beta player Great india Hatsoff,” tweeted user Sanotsh Lakawat.
However, there were plenty, who congratulated Arjun addressing him as ‘Son of God of Cricket.’ This was in reference to Tendulkar’s nickname as the God of Cricket. One user Tarun wrote, ” I bet those who are saying Arjun is selected due to nepotism don’t know how he performed . If nepotism works he would be the captain of U19 till now and would have played IPL . Don’t compare him with Sachin. He is simply the greatest ever.” Another user Pradeep Kumar S tweeted, ” let’s give him a chance before concluding that he is in the team because of Sachin Tendulkar.”
Squad for four-day games: Anuj Rawat (Captain & WK), Atharva Taide, Devdutt Padikkal, Aryan Juyal (VC & WK), Yash Rathod, Ayush Badoni, Sameer Choudhary, Siddharth Desai, Harsh Tyagi, Y.D. Mangwani, Arjun Tendulkar, Nehal Wadhera, Akash Pande, Mohit Jangra, Pawan Shah.
Squad for One-dayers: Aryan Juyal (Captain & WK), Anuj Rawat (WK), Devdutt Padikkal, Atharva Taide, Yash Rathod, Ayush Badoni, Sameer Choudhary, Siddharth Desai, Harsh Tyagi, Y.D. Mangwani, Ajay Devgaud, Y. Jaiswal, Mohit Jangra, Akash Pande, Pawan Shah.