India's domestic red-ball season is underway, which means that players are active in a number of tournaments around the country. Some may be looking to make enough of a mark to be considered for the Indian team for their upcoming Test matches, but most are preparing to stake a claim in their own respective domestic sides for the Ranji Trophy as well.

Among the latter is Arjun Tendulkar, the fast bowler who is the son of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar. The 24-year-old, who plays for Goa in domestic cricket, has turned some heads with a remarkable performance in the Dr (Capt) K Thimmappiah Memorial Tournament, also known as KSCA Invitational. Playing for the Goa CA XI against Karnataka, Tendulkar took nine wickets over the course of the match and powered his team to a victory by an innings and 189 runs.

Tendulkar returned figures of 5/41 in 13 the first innings as Karnataka were all out for just 103 in 36.5 over. Goa then put up a huge score of 413 with Abhinav Tejrana (109) scoring a century and Manthan Khutkar making 69. Trailing by 310 runs, Karnataka were then all out for 121 in 30.4 overs with Tendulkar returning figures of 4/46 in his 13.3 overs.

Arjun Tendulkar in first class cricket

While Tendulkar played much of his underage cricket in Mumbai, he could never make it to the first team of the 42-time Ranji Trophy champions. He made his Ranji Trophy debut playing for Goa in the 2022/23 season. Tendulkar played 13 first class matches and took 21 wickets at an average of 45.19.

He has played five matches for the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL), making him and Sachin the first father-son pair to play in the tournament. Tendulkar made four appearances in 2023 and one in 2024. He got his first wicket while defending 20 runs bowling the last over of a league match against Sunrisers Hyderabad after which his father, who was MI's first captain in the inaugural season of the IPL, joked that "finally a Tendulkar has an IPL wicket".

His captain Rohit Sharma said that Tendulkar was confident about what he wants to do. "Arjun has been a part of this team for the last three years [though he didn't make the XI]. I have seen him grow over the years," he had said.

"We saw in this lead up to the IPL what he was doing; he was bowling fast, nailing those yorkers, and quite clear in his plans as well. Keeping things easy - that's what he is trying to do [for the team]. He is trying to swing the new ball and bowl yorkers at the death," Rohit had further said.

HOW DID YOU LIKE THIS ARTICLE? CHOOSE YOUR EMOTICON !