'He's the extra bowler and he doesn't have to complete four overs' - Tom Moody assess Arjun Tendulkar’s role in Mumbai Indians' setup

Despite conceding only nine runs in his first two overs, Arjun Tendulkar wasn’t brought back into the attack in Mumbai Indians’ last match against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Talking about the same, former Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach Tom Moody made a massive remark, calling Arjun an extra bowler in the playing XI and justifying the reason why Rohit Sharma didn’t hand him the ball after the powerplay.

Notably, in Mumbai’s match against Punjab Kings in the ongoing IPL 2023, the 23-year-old leaked 31 runs in the 16th over as Sam Curran and Harpreet Singh wreaked havoc. Thus, that could be one of the reasons why skipper Rohit Sharma turned to Cameron Green in the final overs against GT. However, the Australia international leaked 39 runs in his two overs at an economy of 19.50 as Gujarat went on to post 207 runs on the board.

Now, even though Green leaked a lot of runs, Moody explained that the decision to hand him the ball at the death was correct as he is an international bowler while Arjun isn’t.

“You can't guarantee that the third over will be met. Even the very best bowlers, the most experienced bowlers… when you get greedy and think, 'let's just try and get that extra over', more often than not, they get lined up.

“Tendulkar did his job. Again, he's a recipient of the sub. He's the extra bowler. And the extra bowler doesn't have to complete four (overs). He has contributed well at the top, took a wicket and gave nine runs. You can't argue when the cows come home, ‘oh he should’ve bowled the death over instead of Green!'. Green's the international bowler, and he has bowled poorly,” Moody told ESPNCricinfo.

Meanwhile, when it came to the chase, Mumbai batters failed to live up to the expectations. Skipper Rohit Sharma walked back to the pavilion in the second over of the innings, while players like Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav and Tim David couldn’t do much damage. In the end, Mumbai posted only 152 runs as they lost the game by 55 runs. With that, they remain seventh on the IPL Points Table, while Gujarat moved up to number two.