Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar is impressed with the young Mumbai Indians player Tilak Varma, who has been one of the few bright spots for his side in their rather forgettable campaign in IPL 2022. Mumbai Indians are currently 10th and last on the points table of IPL 2022, but Varma has done well with the bat, averaging nearly 41 in the 12 games he has played so far in his debut season as well.
And, Gavaskar feels the young 19-year-old left-hand batter, who has played only 15 T20 games so far, has good cricketing brains and could be an all-format India batter too as well. However, he was a part of India’s U-19 World Cup squad in 2020, he was bought by the Mumbai franchise for Rs 1.7 crore after an extremely competitive bidding competition from the likes of Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals.
Varma has so far smashed 368 runs in IPL 2022, with a highest of 61 and has remained unbeaten on three innings as well. Moreover, his big-hitting capability has also come to the fore as he has smashed 27 boundaries and 15 maximums while batting in the middle order.
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“Tilak Varma’s temperament (in IPL 2022) has been fantastic. In his knock against Chennai Super Kings, he walked into the middle when the team was under pressure. But the way he dealt in ones and twos (early on) was impressive. He played a wide range of shots and kept rotating the strike. This shows that he has a good cricketing head on his shoulders, and I think that’s important. Once you have that good cricketing brain, you will be able to lift yourself when things are not going your way. You can analyse yourself and get back to scoring runs,” said Sunil Gavaskar on Cricket Live, Star Sports.
Sunil Gavaskar has also applauded the young batter for having the basics right and agreed with Rohit Sharma’s observation that the rising Hyderabad batter could be an all-format India batter in the future as well.
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“He’s got the basics right. Technically he’s right. He gets right behind the line of the ball. He’s got a straight bat, and while defending on the front foot his bat is close to the pad. So, all his basics are right. With all the right basics you’ve got to marry the temperament and that marriage we have seen is very good at the moment. I hope that he carries on. Rohit Sharma rightly mentioned that he could be an all-format player for India. So now it’s up to him to work that little bit extra, get his fitness going, get a little tighter as far as the technique is concerned and prove Rohit right,” signed off Sunil Gavaskar.
