‘Don’t need to prove anything to anyone’ – Arjun Tendulkar opens up ahead of LSG’s IPL 2026 opener

Arjun Tendulkar has opened up on the challenges he faced in age-group cricket due to injuries in crucial stages of his career. 

The Goa all-rounder mentioned a significant stress-fracture in his back, which led to a re-modelling of his bowling action, keeping away from playing his last year of Under-19 cricket, a significant developmental stage in the Indian cricket ecosystem. 

“I had two back-to-back stress fractures at the end of 2015, and I was out of cricket for a year because I had to completely remodel my action. So, I lost a year of Under-19 cricket, which is a crucial stage. One of my make-or-break years went because of the stress fractures. Yes, the recovery took time because the entire action had to be remodeled. A year just goes by. And there were quite a few challenges. If I start talking about all of them, it would take too long,” he said while speaking on Shubhankar Mishra’s podcast.

Carrying the tag that he does, Arjun believes that despite this, there is nothing that he has to prove to anyone in the game, as he plays the game out of passion and wants nothing more than to enjoy this sport.

“It’s not to prove anything to anyone. I play cricket out of my passion and work hard. I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. I just want to work hard and enjoy the game,” he added.

Arjun further stated that his primary skill is bowling, despite being an all-rounder. He believes that all-rounders should always have a predominant primary skill. 

“I consider myself an all-rounder. In my opinion, every all-rounder needs to have one predominant skill. Either you are primarily a bowler who can bat, or a batsman who can bowl. But if you try to be 50-50, you won’t be successful in either. My main skill is bowling, but that doesn’t mean I can’t score runs. Bowling is my predominant skill, but I really enjoy batting too, and it’s a lot of fun for me,” he stated.

Arjun Tendulkar has joined the Lucknow Super Giants after being traded in from the Mumbai Indians ahead of the 2026 season.