Why is Arjun Tendulkar Not Playing Today’s IPL 2023 Match Between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium?

Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals are up against each other in the 42nd match of Indian Premier League 2023. The match is being played at the Wankhede Stadium and is the 1,000th match of IPL history. Both teams have made a few changes to their Playing XIs and Mumbai’s pacer Arjun Tendulkar is not playing tonight.

Rajasthan’s captain Sanju Samson won the toss and, surprisingly, elected to bat first on a batting beauty in Mumbai. The teams generally prefer to chase in Mumbai due to the dew factor. Samson said that they want to stick with their strength of defending the totals.

“We would like to bat first. Wicket looks like a good one, we are trying to stick to our strengths and put up a total. We are playing a great standard of cricket and the team is in a good space,” Samson told host broadcaster Star Sports Network at the toss.

Why is Arjun Tendulkar Not Playing Today’s IPL 2023 Match Between Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals

Mumbai have made a couple of changes to their Playing XI where the left-arm pace duo of Tendulkar and Jason Behrendorff have been replaced by Arshad Khan and Jofra Archer.

“We have two changes – Jofra [Archer] and Arshad Khan are back in place of [Jason] Behrendorff and Arjun Tendulkar,” captain Rohit Sharma told Star Sports.

Tendulkar has played four matches in the tournament so far, but he has failed to impress. He has scalped just three wickets at an economy rate of 9.35. Tendulkar is in the substitutes but it is unlikely that he will be used as an Impact Player as they are already bowling first.

It is worth a mention that benching Tendulkar is a tactical change and that there are no injury concerns around him. Although Khan is getting a game, but he has also been unimpressive so far with just one wicket in three IPL 2023 matches. Archer is also back which confirmed that pacer Chris Jordan has not been signed as his replacement.

MI vs RR other important inclusions

Talking about other important inclusions, the Royals have fast bowler Trent Boult back into the XI. Spinner Adam Zampa replaced him in the last match, but the pacer is now completely fit. Boult has scalped nine wickets in six matches this season at an economy of 7.95.