Sachin Tendulkar's 12-year-old son, Arjun, looks ready for a life in cricket as a bowler and can be seen in Team India's gear at the Sydney Cricket Ground practice nets. Bowling at his father at Moore Park, as India stepped up preparations for the second Test against Australia starting Tuesday, he acted as if he was part of the Indian squad. One day he could be playing for India. Expectations are a facet of life of being Tendulkar's offspring, and those of young Arjun have only intensified recently.
Arjun is busy making a name for himself, and not just in the Sydney nets and is not affected by his father's quest for a 100th international hundred, which is keeping the cricket world holding its breath with each attempt, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
It was in an interschool match in Mumbai in November that India's cricket-obsessed public of 1.2 billion realised Arjun's burgeoning talents with bat and ball.
The left-arm Arjun took 8-22 for the Dhirubhai Ambani International School on debut in the Harris Shield schools competition, bowling a dozen overs in a row and reportedly troubling all the opposition batsmen with his swing and accuracy.
The reason for the subsequent hysteria on the subcontinent was not only because he is cricketing royalty. It was in the very same schools tournament in Mumbai more than 23 years ago that Tendulkar entered the public mind.
However, young Arjun's efforts for his school and in the Indian training nets indicate that he could become a bowler rather than a batsman.
Arjun is, contrary to his legendary old man, a left-hander with the bat but didn't get a chance to pad up yesterday as Fletcher's side was in serious training mode following their 122-run defeat to Australia in Melbourne last week.
Yet his bowling has made headlines in India and also reportedly got the better of one of Tendulkar's colleagues in the lead-up to the Boxing Day Test at the MCG.
Indian media reported that Arjun, bowling at Rohit Sharma, had with late away movement beaten the batsman with his first delivery in the nets, the paper reports.
© HT
