Arjun Tendulkar made his much-awaited Indian Premier League (IPL) debut in the ongoing season for Mumbai Indians (MI).
While the left-arm seamer has impressed one and all with his movement and accuracy, his pace is not up to the mark to hurry the batters.
Arjun’s bowling speeds have been around 126-130 kph, but MI bowling coach Shane Bond has said that he will be working on increasing his pace.
Bond praised Arjun for the way he bounced back to deliver two good overs against Gujarat Titans after being taken to the cleaners in the game against Punjab Kings.
The 23-year-old was smashed for 48 runs, including 31 in one over against PBKS but he returned with figures of 1/9 in two overs versus GT on Tuesday (April 25).
"He did well today, obviously after what happened in the last game. It's never easy to step out onto the ground that is a Colosseum with a big crowd. We will work on increasing his pace, but he did all that was asked of him today," Bond said at the press conference after MI’s 55-run loss to GT.
On his debut against KKR, Arjun Tendulkar finished with figures of 2-0-17-0. In his second game against SRH, Arjun was tasked to defend 20 runs in the final over and he gave away just five runs for one wicket.
"It's a combination of things. We're not executing what we need to. We've got pretty simple plans. Watch how we bowled in an area. We got hit and immediately resorted to some changes.
"It's disappointing when we can't distinguish plans when we are on the back foot during difficult run chases," Bond said.
"Like in the last game, I think it was 100/4, and then we just dished up freebies. We gave (David) Miller and (Abhinav) Manohar free hits, and once we gave players to get in runs, they took the game away from us.
"And that's the disappointing thing from our point of view. So we just have to be better in our decision-making and our execution. In short, it was a tough day for us," he added.
Mumbai Indians were outplayed by Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
Opting to bowl first, MI conceded a mammoth total of 207/6 on the board. Shubman Gill (56 off 34), David Miller (46 off 22), Abhinav Manohar (42 off 21), and Rahul Tewatia (20* off 5) starred with the bat for GT.
In reply, the five-time champions managed to post 152/9 in their allotted 20 overs. It was a disappointing batting display as no one in the line-up managed to hit a half-century. Nehal Wadhera top scored with 21-ball 40.
"When you chase 208, the only plan is to keep going. We tried to ride the storm as the ball swung differently. Look at the way Hardik and Mohammad Shami bowled, not giving us free balls to hit.
"We had to try to manufacture something. Thus, the score at the end of the powerplay reflected how they bowled on a wicket, which they did the same to RR," Bond said.
"The first six overs were tough for both teams, as it would get difficult for the bowling team because of the dew factor. We were trying to stop the damage to our run rate, which has taken another big hit tonight."
(With PTI Inputs)
