'Plays a wide range of shots, has good cricketing brain': Gavaskar identifies future 'all-format' player for India
While most of the noise has been about bowlers, the batters too have made quite an impression in IPL 2022. In fact, one of them has been so promising and full of talent that even the great Sunil Gavaskar couldn't stop himself from showering praises on him.
Continuing with the IPL's tradition of producing young and impressive talents, this year of the Indian Premier League too has witnessed a bunch of promising youngsters make most their opportunities. The likes of Ayush Badoni, Tilak Varma, Umran Malik, Mukesh Choudhary, Mohsin Khan and more have made heads turn with their brilliant show, with certain performances really impressing the legends of Indian cricket. (Also Read:
While most of the noise has been about Umran Malik, his raw pace and how he is the next big superstar of Indian cricket with several former cricketers wanting him to get a place in Team India squad, batters too have made quite an impression. In fact, one of them, Varma of Mumbai Indians, has been so promising and full of talent that even the great Sunil Gavaskar couldn't stop himself from showering praises on him.
"Tilak Varma's temperament 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," Gavaskar said on the Cricket Live show on Star Sports.
Varma has scored 368 runs from 12 matches for MI this season with two half-centuries and has been the franchise's leading run-scorer. Varma earned special praise from his captain Rohit Sharma, who backed the MI youngster to play all three formats for the Indian team going forward, and it is a sentiment that Gavaskar echoes.
"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," said the former India captain.