India were tested and tried but came through unscathed in their opening game against the USA in Mumbai on Saturday night. The defending champions had their moments of scare especially when they were batting. The start was not great as Abhishek Sharma fell for a nought and then they had lost half of their side without much on the board.
However, skipper Suryakumar Yadav produced a brilliant knock under pressure to give his bowlers a decent target to defend. Mohd Siraj, who came into the squad because Harshit Rana had injured himself and got into the playing XI because Jasprit Bumrah was not available, showed that he belongs to the T20 sphere too with a three-wicket haul which prevented USA from challenging the Indian score.
However, the one guy who impressed the legendary Sunil Gavaskar was none other than Tilak Varma. The Hyderabad batter, who is back in the squad after missing the New Zealand T20I series due to a minor surgery he had to undergo, played a sensible knock of 25.
“Tilak Varma is a very street-smart cricketer. He has been very impressive not just for his batting skills or his range of shots, but for knowing when, how, and where to play them. He showed that against USA. He came into bat in the second over after Abhishek Sharma, the team’s main aggressor, got out,” Gavaskar said Star Sports’ Amul Cricket Live show.
Tilak is the kind of player who will stick with you: Sunny
“At that stage, Tilak knew he needed to counter-attack, but without taking big risks. He was not being over-aggressive but took calculated chances. He played a chip shot over mid-on because he knew the fielder was inside the circle. He was not trying to hit a six, just a boundary. Tilak is the kind of player who will stick with you. We saw this in the Asia Cup final too, where he took his time and then exploded at the end. So, if a player like him comes in during the first six overs and is still there by the 14th or 15th over, you can be pretty sure India is close to 200 runs,” Gavaskar added.
India take on Namibia in the next game and the team management will have to take a call on their fast-bowling options. “The team management will obviously be looking at Jasprit Bumrah’s fitness. They might want him to bowl more in the nets before the match. If Bumrah is fit, he will walk back into the team. I do not see any other changes happening. We will have to wait and see if Mohammed Siraj or Arshdeep Singh make way for him. Maybe they will rotate between Arshdeep, Bumrah and Siraj to keep all of them fresh for the latter half of the tournament,” Gavaskar said.
“Batting wise, I do not see changes being made. They will just expect better scores from the batters, and they would surely want Abhishek Sharma to play a big, quick innings of 70, 80, or 90 runs. The thing about Abhishek is, when he gets out early in one match, he often scores big in the next game and I feel the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi is in for a treat from his bat when India plays Namibia,” he said.
Former India player Parthiv Patel said cricket sense and match situation is important for every batter. “With the kind of aggressive approach India is playing in T20Is, you will have days like the one which they experienced in this match against the USA, where the Indian batters were trying to hit every ball to the boundary and in the process of scoring runs quickly, they ended up losing wickets. But that is where your cricket sense and the match situation become very important. Captain Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma are the kind of players who know they need to give themselves a bit of time. Suryakumar Yadav did exactly that, and that is why he scored those 84 runs,” he said.
