20-year-old Tilak Varma has made a cracking start to his India career in the T20I format in the ongoing series in West Indies.
Showing a great deal of composure and temperament on his debut series, on tough batting pitches where most of the other batters have struggled, Tilak Varma has racked up scores of 39 (22), 51 (41), and 49*(37).
With his terrific start to his T20I career, fans and even some experts have suggested that the Indian management and selectors include him in the ODI squad as early as possible and make him ready for the World Cup 2023 later this year at home. There are plenty of merits and reasonings in these claims by the fans.
Here are 3 major reasons why Tilak Varma should be in India’s World Cup 2023 squad:
Tilak Varma has shown impeccable temperament in grabbing his chances
A standout thing about Tilak Varma from his debut for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2022, and in his success in IPL 2023, has been his temperament which has belied his young age.
In his debut IPL season last year, he was one of the few Mumbai batters who did well, and he more often than not was doing the rebuilding job after the top-order failures. This year, he took it up a notch by smashing 343 runs at a strike rate of 164 and average of 42.
On his maiden India tour, in West Indies, Varma has looked very settled and unfazed on pitches where most other batters from both sides have struggled to play sizeable innings, while Varma has three good knocks to show in his first three innings itself.
Varma has now bowed down to the demands and pressures of the situation and has come out like a polished diamond. He’s shown composure, clarity in shot-making, and of course, fearlessness of going after any bowler, at any stage of the game, but also has shown caution when needed.
Perfect air-tight technique that makes him an excellent player pacers
It is Tilak Varma’s nigh-perfect technique and his temperament like an experienced player that led to India and Mumbai Indians skipper claim in 2022 that Varma will soon become an all-format player for India.
Varma has a stunning game against both pacers and spinners: in IPL 2023, against spin, he averaged 35 and strike rate of 136 while against pacers he averaged 50 and struck at 192.
While team India already has some great players of spin, owing to growing up in Indian conditions, Tilak could be an outlier as he has a better game against pacers than spinners. Even someone like Hardik Pandya has struggled against quality or even mediocre pace in recent times, while Shreyas Iyer’s weakness against pace is well and world known.
Left-hander in the middle-order
In the absence of Rishabh Pant, India’s batting order till number 6 is filled with only right-handers with Jadeja coming in at number 7. Having Tilak Varma in the middle-order will break that chain of right-handers.
While players like Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav, both right-handers, have failed to really grab their chances in the ODI side, the selectors maybe should give Tilak Varma a go in one or two series ahead of the World Cup 2023.
Senior off-spinner R Ashwin recently said that Varma could be the “X-factor” India need in their ODI side for the World Cup 2023. Ashwin also pointed out that teams like England, Australia, New Zealand, and Pakistan all have at least one leg-spinner to tackle India’s right-handers. Having a left-hander like Tilak would prove crucial in taking down the leg-spinners.
