Mukesh Ambani-owned Mumbai Indians are favourite to buy Sachin Tendulkar’s son in the 18 February IPL auctions even though Arjun Tendulkar faced a huge setback ahead of the Vijay Hazare Trophy. The 21-year-old left-arm pacer failed to find a place in the Mumbai team announced for the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Meanwhile, fans have begun speculating on which IPL franchise will be keen to take a bet on Arjun when this year’s auctions begin on 18 February. Going by the response to a question by Star Sports, the official broadcaster for the IPL, fans appeared almost unanimous in predicting that Mumbai Indians would go for the young Tendulkar. His father, a batting legend, represented Mumbai Indians until he called it quits to cricket.
Sharing a photo of Arjun Tendulkar, Star Sports asked cricket fans, “Next up in the #VIVOIPLAuction – Tendulkar! Who do you think will go for Arjun Tendulkar on Feb 18?”
One fan wrote on Twitter, “MI definitely purchase this guy because of Nepotism!!!” “Mumbai Indians,” wrote another fan. According to one fan, the Mumbai Indians will buy him even though he did not ‘deserve’ to play in the IPL.
Next up in the #VIVOIPLAuction – Tendulkar! ?
Who do you think will go for Arjun Tendulkar on Feb 18? pic.twitter.com/lEaVcEckEL
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) February 12, 2021
Earlier this month, Twitterati had exploded in anger after Arjun Tendulkar registered himself for this month’s IPL auctions. The announcement had triggered a fresh controversy on nepotism with fans suspecting the young Tendulkar to be bought by Mukesh Ambani-owned Mumbai Indians even though he has only played two T20 matches in his career by scoring three runs and taking two wickets.
In his first match between Mumbai and Haryana on 15 January, Sachin Tendulkar’s son scored 0 run and claimed one wicket by conceding 34 runs in three overs. His second and last outing was against Puducherry when he scored just three runs and took one wicket by conceding 33 runs in four overs. Mumbai lost both the matches.
Meanwhile, Shreyas Iyer will lead the Mumbai team in the Vijay Hazare trophy with Prithvi Shaw is being named his deputy. Rest of the players are Yashaswi Jaiswal, Akhil Herwadkar, Suryakumar Yadav, Sarfaraz Khan, Chinmay Sutar, Aditya Tare, Hardik Tamore, Shivam Dube, Aakash Parkar, Atif Attarwala, Shams Mulani, Atharva Ankolekar, Sairaj Patil, Sujit Nayak, Tanush Kotian, Prashant Solanki, Dhawal Kulkarni, Tushar Deshpande, Siddharth Raut and Mohit Awasthi.
