File image of Indian cricket team star Tilak Varma© AFP
Tilak Varma has been a breath of fresh air in the Indian cricket team. He is left-handed and has shown the right intent in the middle-order in the few matches that he has played for the Indian T20I team. The result of that is that he has been rewarded with a spot in India’s Asia Cup squad. However, with KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer also being selected, Varma might not get many chances in the Indian team’s playing XI. The 20-year-old Tilak has so far played seven T20Is, scored 174 runs. In 25 List A matches, he has scored 1236 runs at an average of 56.18.
Though he is already being spoken of as a World Cup squad material too. 1983 World Cup winner Kris Srikkanth feels he should not be given debut in big events.
“Do not give Tilak Varma debut in a big tournament, play him in the ODI series before that,” Srikkanth said on his YouTube channel Cheeky Cheeka.
“Tilak has fantastic potential, a brilliant player – but he has to play a couple of one-day series before putting him in the WC squad. We need to groom him properly,” he added.
Former India cricketer and BCCI selector, Saba Karim feels Tilak’s selection alone shows the confidence the selectors and team management have in him
At times, the selectors and the team management can back a player after what they have seen in the ground. There’s no harm in picking a player from T20 format to One-day format. One should also not forget that Tilak has had some kind of experience in List A matches,” he said on Jio Cinema.
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