Past India National Cricket Team striker Sanjay Manjrekar compared the youngster Tilak Varma to legendary wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni.
Sanjay Manjrekar made this big comparison after Tilak Varma’s sensational knock against the England National Cricket Team in the second T20I at Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai, MA.
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Tilak Varma appeared as a lone batsman in the Chennai T20I
22-year-old Tilak Varma was the lone batsman for the Indian National Cricket Team in the second T20I. He played a perfect shot to guide his team to victory and take a 2-0 lead. series.
Varma started the innings aggressively and took the English bowlers to the cleaners. He especially destroyed the first staircase Jofra Archer he scored 30 runs off 9 balls.
After an aggressive start initially, Varma had to play a little cautiously in the middle overs as India lost wickets at regular intervals. Tilak Varma took a calm approach and didn’t let the fall of wickets affect his game.
He took the game to the final and ended the match with a four. Tilak Varma also won the Man of the Match award for his unbeaten knock of 72 runs.
He was very happy to be there virtually till the end – Sanjay Manjrekar
Speaking on ESPNCricinfo’s Timeout after the match, Manjrekar said he has great confidence in Varman’s ability to take India across the finish line as he didn’t panic even when the boundaries didn’t come.
“Absolutely. He has the confidence to see India through to the end and even in that run chase, 18, there was no panic,” he said.
“Even in the 19th over, you could see that India didn’t get the boundary that could have taken the pressure off. But he was very happy to be there till the end,” Manjrekar added.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni had the same confidence – Sanjay Manjrekar
Sanjay Manjrekar added that the confidence shown by Tilak Varma reminds him of the legendary MS Dhoni, who used to take the game deep and finish matches for the Indian National Cricket Team.
“He seems to be a confident guy who can get his team through, just like we had a legend in the past called Mahendra Singh Dhoni who had the same confidence. So when you have a player like you. he takes on that role by batting at No.3 can take, it’s not such a bad thing,” said Sanjay Manjrekar.
Meanwhile, former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali praised Tilak Varman for his heroics. In a video he shared on his YouTube channel, Basit Ali said that since the day Varman started keeping long hair, he started performing exceptionally well.
“Tilak Varma is very good (since he started growing long hair). I’m joking (laughs),” said the former cricketer of the Pakistan National Cricket Team.
