Arjun Tendulkar, Son of Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar, Named in Mumbai's Squad for Syed Mushtaq Ali Tournament

With BCCI giving the nod to naming extended squads in the times of Covid, Sachin Tendulkar's son Arjun Tendulkar has been named in Mumbai squad for the first time, for the upcoming Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The news was confirmed by the Mumbai team’s chief selector Salil Ankola on Saturday.

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“Earlier the BCCI had asked to select 20 players. But later they said that 22 players can be selected in the squad, accordingly the two players were added to the squad,” an MCA official stated.

Initially Mumbai had named a 20-member squad, of which Arjun wasn't a part of. Later, MCA decided to add him and another bowler Krutik. This is the first time that Arjun has made it to Mumbai senior team.

Earlier, fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar was on Friday picked in the Uttar Pradesh squad for the first two matches of the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy after making expected recovery from the thigh injury he suffered during the Indian Premier League (IPL), and rule him out for six months. Interestingly, Bhuvneshwar was not picked in Uttar Pradesh's initial list of 26 probables released on December 21 while Raina's name was included.

The fast bowler will fly to Alur (Bengaluru) from Delhi on Saturday along with Suresh Raina while the other members of the team will leave separately. Though the National Cricket Academy (NCA) has given all-clear to Bhuvneshwar to play in the tournament, Uttar Pradesh have picked as many as seven fast bowlers in a squad of 22, including seven standbys, to ensure sufficient back-up to the injury-prone India pace bowler should he suffer another injury.

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Apart from Bhuvneswar, Mohsin Khan, Ankit Rajpoot, Shivam Mavi, Aaquib Khan, Mohit Jangra, and Purnank Tyagi are the other fast bowlers. The BCCI has asked its affiliates to pick 20-member squads, Uttar Pradesh has picked two extra members in the squad. Uttar Pradesh has been bunched with Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Punjab, Railways and Tripura in the Elite A group, and will play their matches in Bengaluru. It had been learnt earlier that Bhuvneshwar would not be available for competitive cricket for six months prior to IPL.

• Arjun Tendulkar
• bcci
• MCA
• sachin tendulkar
• Syed Mushtaq Ali