What happened to Arjun Tendulkar: Simarjeet Singh earns maiden IPL call-up from Mumbai Indians for IPL 2021

Simarjeet Singh: The 23-year old fast bowler from Delhi has been handed with his maiden Indian Premier League call-up.

Indian Premier League defending champions Mumbai Indians have handed a maiden call-up to pacer Simarjeet Singh for the remainder of the ongoing second phase of the 14th season in the UAE.

Simarjeet, who represents Delhi in domestic cricket, has come as a replacement for injured pacer Arjun Tendulkar. Indians, however, haven’t revealed the exact nature of injury which Tendulkar has suffered.

Tendulkar, 22, had made his T20 debut for Mumbai earlier this year. Bought at his base price of INR 20 lakh in IPL 2021 auction, the left-arm bowler was yet to be given an opportunity in the biggest T20 tournament in the world.

Simarjeet Singh earns maiden IPL call-up from Mumbai Indians

Readers must note that Simarjeet had made headlines after he was among the five net bowlers who had traveled alongside the senior Indian team to their tour of Sri Lanka in July.

“The right arm medium fast bowler has started training with the team after completing the mandatory quarantine as per IPL guidelines,” Mumbai said in an official statement published on their website.

In the last season of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the right-arm fast-medium bowler had picked 11 wickets at an average of 28.45, an economy rate of 5.65 and a strike rate of 30.1 and ended up becoming the joint second-highest wicket-taker for Delhi.

All in all, 23-year old Simranjeet has picked 74 wickets in 44 competitive matches across formats in his three-year old career. At MI, Simranjeet will have to compete with the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Dhawal Kulkarni, Mohsin Khan and Yudhvir Charak for a spot in the Playing XI.

Indians, who had lost three matches on the trot in UAE before returning to winning ways against Punjab Kings in Abu Dhabi yesterday, are at the fifth position on the points table after winning five and losing six out of their 11 matches this season.