Sunny Talks: Tilak has a good cricketing head on his shoulders: Gavaskar

Kolkata, May 17 : Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar seconded Mumbai Indians’ skipper Rohit Sharma’s opinion that young Tilak Varma could be an all-format batter for India. In his debut IPL season, the 19-year-old India U-19 batter has impressed all with his technique and temperament. In the most exciting IPL season, the left-handed middle-order batsman has been one of the key takeaways for the Mumbai franchise. Varma’s performance provided much respite to the five-time champions from a rather dull season. Praising the young batter for his technique and temperament the legendary Indian opener claimed Varma possesses a good cricketing brain which will hold him in good stead. Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “Tilak Varma’s temperament (in IPL 2022) has been fantastic. In his knock against Chennai Super Kings, he walked into the middle when the team was under pressure. But the way he dealt in ones and twos (early on) was impressive. He played a wide range of shots and kept rotating the strike. This shows that he has a good cricketing head on his shoulders, and I think that’s important. Once you have that good cricketing brain, you will be able to lift yourself when things are not going your way. You can analyse yourself and get back to scoring runs.” He further praised the youngster for having the basics right and agreed with Rohit Sharma’s observation that the rising Hyderabad cricketer could be an all-format India batter in the future. Gavaskar said, “He’s got the basics right. Technically he’s right. He gets right behind the line of the ball. He’s got a straight bat, and while defending on the front foot his bat is close to the pad. So, all his basics are right. With all the right basics you’ve got to marry the temperament and that marriage we have seen is very good at the moment. I hope that he carries on. Rohit Sharma rightly mentioned that he could be an all-format player for India. So now it’s up to him to work that little bit extra, get his fitness going, get a little tighter as far as the technique is concerned and prove Rohit right.”