Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians are known to promote youngsters and it shouldn’t come as a surprise if they give young hard-hitting batsman Tilak Varma, 19, a place in the playing XI for their IPL-15 opener against the Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals (DC) at the Brabourne Stadium today.
Left-handed Varma, who represented Hyderabad in four first-class, 16 List A and 15 T20 games, impressed people who matter with his attacking style of batting and off-spin.
Tilak Varma with his coach Salam Bayash
Rohit’s backing
Varma, who was picked up for R1.7 crore by the franchise at February’s mega auction, could be a good gamble for the MI team management today or in later matches with the strokeful Suryakumar Yadav recovering from a thumb injury.
Salam Bayash, who is Varma’s coach told Sunday mid-day from Hyderabad: “Rohit has advised Tilak to play without any pressure and encouraged him to feel free to talk about batting with him.”
Mumbai Indians will be on unfamiliar turf on Sunday—Brabourne Stadium—as against the neighbouring Wankhede Stadium, where they perform in dazzling fashion more often than not. The five-time champions will be dependent on their new crop of players with only playing XI certainties Kieron Pollard, Ishan Kishan and Jasprit Bumrah belonging to the previous group.
All eyes on Shaw, Thakur
The opposition camp has two key Mumbai players in their line-up—Prithvi Shaw and Shardul Thakur. While Shaw has been with DC for a few seasons, this is Thakur’s first year with the franchise having been with Chennai Super Kings earlier. One big battle of the day could be Rohit v Thakur. Another one could be Pant v Bumrah. “I believe we have good depth in our squad. Yes, we are missing some overseas players for the first couple of games, but that’s no worry for us. I fully expect that we can get off to a good start on Sunday,” DC head coach Ricky Ponting said during a virtual press conference. It will be interesting to see if DC pencil in Sarfaraz Khan, another Mumbai player, on their team sheet.
When Pant was asked about his personal goals for the season, he said: “I have not thought about my personal goals. We are just focusing on the team’s needs and that is the most important thing for us in the Delhi Capitals. It’s always exciting to have new players in our team, but we are continuing to follow the same process we have been following in the last few years.”
