Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar heaped praise on Tilak Varma after the southpaw received a big call-up for Asia Cup 2023. Tilak, who grabbed the limelight in the last two IPLs, impressed many on his maiden international series against West Indies. The southpaw was the leading run-getter for India in the T20I series in the Caribbean.
Varma has been backed by several former cricketers including Ravi Shastri for a place in the ODI World Cup squad and the selection in Asia Cup teams indicated that he is definitely in the fray now.
Manjrekar hailed Varma for his impressive outings on debut tour but also took a cheeky dig on in the performance in the last two T20Is versus Ireland.
“Yes, because he is in hot form. Look at his domestic career, he’s got the numbers to merit a call for India. And also, tongue in cheek, he is also getting ready for 50 overs cricket by failing in his last two matches in the T20 format. So he is getting ready for 50-over cricket. It is hard to find a weakness in him, in white ball cricket. And as I’ve mentioned before, let’s have some impact, quality players at number four, five, and six. There’s a tremendous rush for spots number one, two, and three, in Indian cricket, let’s have these number four, five, six batters out there,” Manjrekar said on Star Sports.
Meanwhile, former Australia cricketer Tom Moody also talked highly of Varma’s skills and temperament and said he is going to be valuable for India at number 5 and 6.
“I think it’s a wonderful selection. I’ll call it brave, but I also call it in the same breath smart. He is clearly a player on the rise, as I touched on earlier. He’s got not only skill but an enormous temperament, and he is showing that on a regular basis. We have talked about the value of left-handedness in the top order, so him coming in at that number five or six position is going to be valuable for India, particularly to have that balance against spin,” he added.
India will open their campaign against Pakistan on September 2. All of India’s Asia Cup games will be played in Sri Lanka while tournament host Pakistan will get to host four games at home.