The Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025 had an unexpected but unforgettable moment when on Wednesday (November 26) at Jadavpur University Campus in Kolkata, Arjun Tendulkar, the son of the late cricketing great Sachin Tendulkar, opened for Goa against Uttar Pradesh.
Arjun Tendulkar not only opened the innings for Goa in the first match of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025 but also surprised everyone. Even the left-arm fast bowler gained people’s attention with his fearless swinging, hitting, and his flexibility to adjust to a completely different role.
Arjun Tendulkar shocks the cricket community by opening for Goa in SMAT 2025 opener
In the role of opener for Goa, the left-handed batter made a rapid 28 runs off 22 balls. His playing style was short yet full of energy, plus the four boundaries he hit clearly indicated that he didn’t mind taking control at the top.
He was the opening bat with Ishaan Gadekar, who also had a good start but got out early scoring 16 off 10 balls, bowled by the seasoned pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
After one wicket fell, Arjun kept the run-rate high and was well supported by Abhinav Tejrana (72 runs off 35 balls). They together put on a worth-while 55-run partnership for the second wicket, where Goa was well placed during powerplay.
Goa post 172/9 after Arjun Tendulkar’s agressive knock
Arjun mixed up hitting with strong shots, showing unnerving comfort in a position that he hardly plays. The Uttar Pradesh pacer Shivam Mavi dismissed him in the 8th over, with Goa having scored 75 for 2 in 7.3 overs. He had a strike rate of over 127 while making runs.
Later on, Vikash Kanwar Singh’s unbeaten 21 and Rajashekhar Harikant’s 12 runs took Goa to a total of 172/9 in their 20 overs against Uttar Pradesh in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2025 match.
For Uttar Pradesh, Shivam Mavi was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets to his name and Bhuvneshwar Kumar had two wickets. Sunil Kumar, Vipraj Nigam, and Prashant Veer, on the other hand, bowled well and managed to get one wicket each in the ongoing SAMT 2025 clash in Kolkata.
Arjun Tendulkar’s career stats; eyes a breakthrough season at LSG
Meanwhile, up to now Arjun Tendulkar has played 24 T20s and has taken 27 wickets at an average of 25.07 and an economy rate of 8.75, and scored 119 runs with the highest score of 47 runs. In addition to this amount, he took 48 wickets and scored 620 runs with one hundred and two fifties during the course of 22 FC matches.
The cricketer who is 26 years old has played 18 List-A matches taking 24 wickets and scoring just over 100 runs so far. In IPL, Arjun batted only once and scored 13 runs off 9 balls he faced.
Earlier this month, a new turn opened up for Tendulkar’s IPL journey. After a few seasons with the Mumbai Indians, the young all-rounder was traded to the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for Rs 30 lakh before the IPL 2026 mini-auction in December after having spent a few seasons with the Mumbai Indians.
This will be a fresh start for the son of the legendary cricketer and it is expected that he will get more opportunities to develop and demonstrate his skills in a new setting. He will be playing for the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the IPL 2026 under the captaincy of Rishabh Pant.