Arjun Tendulkar. (Photo Source: Twitter)
The landscape of Indian cricket has always been interesting over the years with several transitions related to tapping the true potential budding cricketers all over the country. In the same vein, The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is going to arrange a three-week camp approximately at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru. Interestingly, Arjun Tendulkar, the son of legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, has been summoned to join the camp.
Notably, the BCCI has only called those youngsters who have done well with both the bat and ball in recent leagues at the domestic level or the coveted Indian Premier League (IPL). Speaking of the camp, the aim is to upgrade the skills of existing youngsters to make them good enough to transition to the elite level in future. Besides, the selection of the players have been done by the senior national selection committee. The committee is headed by the former Indian opener Shiv Sunder Das on an interim basis.
“There is an Emerging Asia Cup (U-23) also later this year and BCCI is looking at potential youngsters. The all-rounders camp is an idea of NCA’s head of cricket VVS Laxman to ensure that we develop a lot of multi-skilled players across formats,” a senior BCCI source was quoted as saying by PTI.
“Not everyone summoned for camp is a pure all-rounder. Some are batting all-rounders and some are opposite. The idea is to tap the potential and help them upgrade their skills suitably for transition to next grade,” he further added.
Apart from Tendulkar some other notable youngsters too have been summoned for the camp. The Saurashtra left-arm pacer and batter, Chetan Sakariya, who also played for India back in 2021 and Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Southpaw all-rounder Abhishek Sharma are some cricketers to get the call-up. Apart from them, Harsit Rana of Delhi has also been asked to join the camp. Notably, Rana was earlier summoned as a net bowler for the senior Indian team who were then bound for the UK for the WTC finals.
He has shown a certain degree of ability and coaches will work on that: BCCI Source
Regarding the selection of Arjun Tendulkar, when asked about his call-up despite his modest performances in the recent past, the BCCI source iterated that Tendulkar Junior has a century in Ranji Trophy while on debut for Goa. Moreover, he stressed the fact that he brings variety being a left-arm pacer as well.
“Arjun already has a Ranji Trophy century. A left-arm pacer who bowls between early and mid 130 kmph and bats left-handed. He brings in variety.” But can his call-up be questioned, considering his modest performance in domestic cricket? “It is not just about numbers but also about potential. He is 23 and has time to develop is what this (senior selection) committee thinks. Else, they wouldn’t have picked him,” the BCCI source concluded.
Notably, Arjun Tendulkar made three appearances for the Mumbai Indians in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL), where he bowled reasonably well. While speaking of his performance in the domestic circuit, Tendulkar has scalped 12 wickets from seven first class matches.