Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma showered praise on Tilak Varma, who has been the biggest positive for the franchise in otherwise a mundane IPL 2022 season. MI was able to bundle out their arch-rivals Chennai Super Kings for a paltry score of 97 runs at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Thursday.
But, Mumbai Indians got a taste of their own medicine when they found themselves on the ropes at 33-4 at the end of five overs. However, Tilak Varma and Hritik Shokeen showed maturity as they rotated the strike.
The left and the right-hand duo added 48 runs for the fifth wicket alliance to get their team out of the troubled waters. Varma remained unbeaten on 34 runs off 32 balls to help his team get over the line in the low-scoring game.
The southpaw has been Mumbai’s best batter of the season as he has top-scored for the franchise with 368 runs in 12 matches at an average of 40.89 and a strike rate of 132.85.
MI skipper Rohit Sharma feels the 19-year-old youngster will soon represent India in all the three formats of the game as he has a solid game under his repertoire.
Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation, “He (Tilak) has been brilliant, playing for the first year, having such a calm head is never easy. I feel he’s going to be an all-format player for India pretty soon. He’s got the technique and temperament. A lot of things are looking bright for him. And there’s hunger as well.”
On the other hand, Sharma also lavished praise on Jasprit Bumrah who returned with impressive figures of 1-12 in his three overs. Bumrah plumbed Robin Uthappa in front of the wickets with a fine inswinging delivery.
Rohit said, “He knows what he needs to do and what the team expects him to do which is the most important thing. He understands, magnificent spell upfront and we saw what he did in the last game as well.”
Meanwhile, Rohit added that it was good to have a pitch that was providing assistance to the bowlers. There was swing and seam on offer with the new ball and there was also turn for the spinners in the middle overs.
Rohit concluded, “Looking at how the pitch was playing and to lose wickets upfront, there were tense moments in the middle. It was just about keeping calm and getting the job done. After losing those wickets at the start, we were a little calm and got the job done in the end. We have played a lot of cricket here. On so many occasions, we’ve had pitches like this. It’s nice to get bowlers into the game as well at times. It’s been batting-friendly pitches all over, it was good to see bounce and swing from both sides which was good to watch. We are keeping one eye (on the future). We want to win games and at the same time we try out certain players. There are options that we still want to try.”
MI will next face Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Tuesday.
