Tilak Varma has made an impressive start to his India career with a string of solid performances in the ongoing five-match T20I series against West Indies. The youngster made his debut last week, scoring 39 before hitting a maiden fifty in his next.
Both the innings came in defeats, however, his third resulted in a dominating win as he made an unbeaten 49.
It was just last year that Tilak first came into the limelight in IPL when he scored 397 runs in 14 innings for Mumbai Indians in what was his maiden season. He followed that with yet another good show earlier this year following which he was called up for the Windies tour.
Suryakumar Yadav has batted many a times with Tilak for MI in IPL and on Tuesday, the duo stitched a match-winning partnership of 87 runs for India that helped them keep the series alive.
“For his age, Tilak Varma is showing amazing maturity,” Suryakumar told reporters after the third T20I. “The way he batted today, he has done this in IPL too. And in just his third game showing such maturity, all credit goes to his hard work. Tilak Varma is a star.”
When asked what has been the standout quality of Tilak’s batting. Suryakumar replied, “He’s very clear in his mind. Most importantly, he knows his game very well, what he wants to do after coming to bat. Today also he was very clear. Mentally, he’s very strong – that’s the most important you need when you come into the Indian dressing room. He’s come strong.”
Suryakumar himself produced a scintillating show with the bat, blasting 44-ball 83 with the help of 10 fours and four sixes.
“I didn’t do anything different. I’ve been batting the same way since last two years. I just had to go out and express myself as I have done before and everything kept falling in place,” the 32-year-old said.
And he’s not disappointed at missing out on what could have been a fourth T20I century. “Milestones never cross my mind. Even when I’m on 47 or 98, if the team requires, I will get to the milestone with a four and a six. I am not bothered about milestones, what the team requires is more important,” Suryakumar said.
India, the world’s top-ranked T20I side, were given a rude wake-up call by the West Indies as they suffered narrow defeats in the first two matches after dominating the Tests and ODIs.
“See you never think of losing a series. You also cannot be thinking about the standings (rankings). On a given day, a team that plays well for 3-4 hours will win. We know dangerous West Indies are in T20s. We all wanted to show our character today, take responsibility and win the game for our team. Not just the eleven (on the field), all 15 (squad members) were thinking in the same direction. It was great fun,” Suryakumar said.
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