Manjrekar sets high standards for new no. 3 Tilak Varma: ‘We had a legend in the past in name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’
Manjrekar was highly impressed with Tilak's calmness in the middle and said there was no panic in the death overs when the required run rate pressure was there.
Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has heaped praise on Tilak Varma for his sensational match-winning knock against England in the second T20I at Chepauk Stadium, Chennai. Tilak displayed great composure on a turning track and took his team over the line with a 72-run unbeaten knock. On a pitch where the other batters failed to get going, Tilak held one end and batted well with the tail to take the game deep and register a nervy 2-wicket win in the final over. The left-handed batter has been doing well since taking over the number 3 spot in the transitional period after Virat Kohli's retirement from the shortest format.
Manjrekar was highly impressed with Tilak's calmness in the middle and said there was no panic in the death overs when the required run rate pressure was there.
"Absolutely. The confidence he has that he will be able to see India through the very end and even in this run chase, there was no panic around the 18th over. Even in the 19th over, you could see that India wasn’t getting the boundary that could take the pressure off. But he was quite happy to virtually be there till the end," Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo's Timeout.
‘Had a legend in the past in the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni’
Manjrekar even compared Tilak to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who is widely regarded as the greatest finisher in Indian cricket.
"It seems the guy who is confident and being the man who can take his team through, just like we had a legend in the past in the name of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who had the same confidence. So, when you have a player like him, batting at No.3, he might be taking on that role, which is not such a bad thing," he added.
Tilak has been enjoying an unbeaten run and scored 318 runs since he was last dismissed in T20Is, which is a new world record, overtaking 271 runs scored between two dismissals by New Zealand's Mark Chapman in 2023. Since his dismissal for 20 runs against South Africa at Gqeberha on November 10 last year, Tilak has gone on to play knocks of 107*, 120*, 19* and 72*, which translates to 318 runs in four innings.
