Arjun Tendulkar’s initiation in the IPL has not been extraordinary. With the expectations sky high from the left-arm pace allrounder, who is Sachin Tendulkar’s son, Arjun took three wickets in the IPL 2023 in four matches for five-time champions Mumbai Indians. He could not take any wicket in the only match that he played in IPL 2024. Yuvraj Singh’s father Yograj Singh, a former India cricketer himself, had trained Arjun for a brief period after which he scored a century in the Ranji Trophy.
In an interview to former Rajasthan Royals and Kings Punjab player Taruwar Kohli, Yograj Singh said Arjun Tendulkar should focus more on his batting.
“If Arjun Tendulkar comes to me now, I will make him the world’s greatest batter in six months. No one knows the potential he has with the bat. He was with me for 12 days, he scored a century in Ranji Trophy debut. Did anybody realise?” Yograj Singh said on Taruwar Kohli’s YouTube channel.
“Goa’s team was here. Sachin and Yuvraj told me to take Arjun Tendulkar under my wings. He stayed here with me for 10-12 days. I thought, ‘he is such a great batter, kaha isko bowling mein laga rakkha hai?’ Why are you wasting him in bowling?’ As a batting all-rounder, he will be fine.”
Earlier, in a separate interview, Yograj has claimed that within those 12 days of him coaching the young cricketers, Arjun made his First Class debut for Goa and hit a century match against Rajasthan. Following this, Arjun even bagged an IPL contract with Mumbai Indians.
Yuvraj Singh’s father then went on to state that the reason Arjun stopped training under him was because nobody wanted his name to be associated with Yograj.
“When he scored a hundred on debut and then returned to IPL, then people were afraid, what if his (Arjun’s) name gets stuck with me? Do you understand what I mean? So people are afraid of getting a tag behind their name,” Yograj said on ‘Unfiltered by Samdish’.
“I told Yuvi – Sachin ko bolo – leave him with me for a year and see what happens,” he added.
Making his debut in 2023, Arjun Tendulkar has played five IPL matches for Mumbai Indians, taking only three wickets. However, Arjun was brought back at his base price of Rs 30 lakhs by the five-time champions in the IPL 2025 mega auctions.
Talking about Yograj, the 66-year-old played one Test and six ODIs for India. His last appearance for the Indian team came back in 1981.
Topics mentioned in this article