Home
India T20I skipper Suryakumar Yadav feels that Mumbai Indians (MI) helped Tilak Varma massively in being able to handle pressure situations. This statement comes after the latter had recently carried India to victory against Pakistan in the Asia Cup final by playing a match-winning knock of 69 runs. With 10 runs required in the final over, Tilak didn't panic at all and smacked Haris Rauf's second delivery for a six to shift the equation completely in the Men in Blue's favour.
Suryakumar on Tilak's rise
Suryakumar remarked that even though Tilak had scored two T20I hundreds against South Africa last year, it was during the Asia Cup that he ended up shining the brightest. He then went on to credit MI for the left-hand batter's rapid rise in the shortest format.
“When we were in South Africa (in November 2024) and he scored two centuries, we got to know that Tilak Varma has arrived. But he showed us the real Tilak Varma in the (Asia Cup) final. He showed us what the real Tilak Varma is," Suryakumar said in a video posted by Mumbai Indians on X.
"All of us – me, Bumrah, Tilak, Rohit Bhai, and Hardik – before India, we play for the Mumbai Indians in the IPL. Mumbai Indians is like a gurukul. Mumbai Indians is a gurukul where they make players. Hum waha par aise pressure situation mei batting karte and vo sab jo pressure hota hai hum try karte hai replicate karne ka jab hum India ko khelte hai tab. So when he played for India, he was already prepared. Tilak knew that he had played in such pressure situations before and had played good knocks in such situations before. I have been in such situations before. So I know what needs to be done," he added.
Tilak selected for Australia T20Is
Meanwhile, Tilak will now be shifting his focus to the upcoming five-match T20I series against Australia that is set to commence from October 29. This will the 22-year-old's first series Down Under and he will be looking perform well. He has so far played 32 T20Is in his career, scoring 962 runs including four half-centuries and two hundreds. He has maintained a blistering average of 53.44 and a strike-rate of 149.14 in the format and is a highly-important player in India's current T20I set-up.
India's squad for Australia T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill (VC), Tilak Varma, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar.
ADVERTISEMENT
