Mumbai T20 League | Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburb pick Arjun Tendulkar for Rs 5 lakh

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar’s son, Arjun Tendulkar, has been picked for Rs 5 lakh by the Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburb for the second season of the T20 Mumbai League. Arjun, who is a promising left-arm pacer and a batsman, was included in the all-rounder category with a base price of Rs 1 Lakh. Junior Tendulkar has also played two unofficial Test matches for the India U-19 team.

Due to his high stock, several teams in the market were bidding for him but the highest bid was raised to Rs 5 lakh by North Mumbai Panthers, which is the maximum bid amount for any player. Charu Sharma, who was conducting the auction, gave the two new teams - Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburb and Eagle Thane Strikers - an option to exercise the OTM (Opportunity to Match) card.

Obviously, both the new teams opted to use their OTM card at Rs 5 lakh after which two cards were placed in a bag and Mumbai Cricket Association and HOC committee member Unmesh Khanvilkar picked one from the bag which ended up being that of Aakash Tigers.

Ahead of the auction, senior Mumbai-based players like Suryakumar Yadav, Akash Parkar (Triumph Knights Mumbai North East), Shivam Dube, Siddhesh Lad (Shivaji Park Lions), Prithvi Shaw (North Mumbai Panthers), Jay Bista and Dhurmil Matkar (SoBo Supersonics), Shubham Ranjane, Tushar Deshpande (Arcs Andheri), Shreyas Iyer, Eknath Kerkar (Namo Bandra Blasters) were retained by the six franchises.

In addition to that, Aditya Tare, Sarfaraz Khan (Eagle Thane Strikers), Dhawal Kulkarni and Shams Mulani (Aakash Tigers Mumbai Western Suburbs) were chosen by the two new franchises in the eight-team league of which Sachin Tendulkar is the brand ambassador.