Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar commented on Team India star player Tilak Varma after the T20 World Cup 2026 Super 8 match against Zimbabwe. Team India remained in the semi-final race with a 72-run win as well.

“Tilak Varma down the order. Good move from India. I’ve seen this guy bat down the order. I just feel that he feels less pressure when batting down the order as opposed to number three. So I think that is the slot for him in the bigger game that will come after this which also means that Hardik Pandya got a chance to bat higher up in the batting order. I was just staggered when I saw Washington Sundar bat at number five in the last game against South Africa and Hardik Pandya at number seven,” he said in a video on his Instagram handle.

“Yes, he got a 50 but the most important thing was he handled the slow ball beautifully. A couple of sixes that he hit where he sort of waited for the slow ball to come to him, spotted it very early but didn’t go after it. Just waited for it to come close to him and then the big swing of the bat came to put that ball in the stand. So some very positive signs with India’s batting because that was more of a worry than the bowling,” Sanjay Manjrekar further added.

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However, Sanjay Manjrekar also applauded Team India’s tactics and process against Zimbabwe as well. They made a change by bringing Sanju Samson in place of Rinku Singh as well.

“I’m going to talk about tactics more than the execution and the result because India was supposed to win this game. I thought India’s process was brilliant right at the start when they had a left-hand right-hand combination to open the inning. That was a very, very important change and that helped India a great deal. I’ll tell you why. If there were two left-handers, Ishan and Abhishek at the top, Sikandar Raza would have brought himself on because it was bowling first, the pitch would have had something for him and his other off-spin in the first six overs and that would have been a little troublesome,” he added.

“Now because there was a presence of Sanju Samson, he couldn’t do that and that meant that the off-spinners were introduced a little late and when spinners were introduced, India’s run rate dropped for just a little bit but the left-hand right-hand combination at the top was a very important change for India and which worked beautifully,” Sanjay Manjrekar concluded.