Former Indian all-rounder and commentator Irfan Pathan has showered praise on India’s match-winner Tilak Varma, who scored an exceptional 51* off 26 to take India to a thrilling four-wicket win in the second T20I against New Zealand.
Speaking during a discussion on Cricinfo, Pathan reckoned that Tilak could become India’s captain in the future, courtesy of his mental strength and versatility to bat at any position. While Tilak was earlier slotted at No.3, he is now taking up the finisher’s role.
“A versatile player is what comes to mind when it comes to Tilak Varma. His two hundreds have come while batting at No.3. But this unbeaten half-century came while batting down the order. The kind of mindset he has has always impressed me. In the future, Tilak Varma will be leading. Wherever he plays, he will lead this side because he has the leader mindset,” Pathan said.
“In the last game, he got out early, batting at No.3. And he forgot that failure and moved on so quickly in just one day’s time and suddenly won the game. It just doesn’t happen automatically; it needs a lot of mental strength, apart from ability and versatility. It allows him to bat anywhere in the top seven,” he added.
On the other hand, Tilak, who was adjudged the player of the match for his heroics, praised Naman Dhir for his 31-run knock off 17 balls, revealing the message he conveyed to Dhir, adding that they were confident of finishing off the 181-run chase in 18 overs.
“I was telling Naman that we’ll stay till the end, and especially the wicket was slightly slower today compared to the last game. So I was telling Naman that we’ll push hard in running between the wickets when spinners were bowling. So that’s what our plan was, and we pushed hard when they were bowling, and unfortunately Naman got out in the last over of Mitchell Santner. Otherwise, I think we would have finished the game in the 19th over, sorry, the 18th over,” Tilak said at the post-match presentation.
