‘Same confidence’: Sanjay Manjrekar compares young Indian batter to cricket legend MS Dhoni

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has praised Tilak Varma for his outstanding performance against England in the second T20I at Chennai. He seems highly impressed with Tilak’s calm approach and ability to guide his team to victory under pressure.

When most batters struggled on a tough pitch, Tilak held his nerve and played an unbeaten knock of 72 runs. After ensuring India’s win in the final over, he won the Player of the Match.

“The confidence he has is 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," Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPNCricinfo's Timeout.

Tilak Varma’s confidence and composure remind Manjrekar of MS Dhoni, known for finishing matches with a cool head. The former India cricketer has pointed out that even when India struggled to find boundaries in the final overs, Tilak remained composed and focused on staying until the end.

“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 Varma’s T20I stats

Tilak Verma, who plays for Mumbai Indians in IPL, has played only 22 T20I cricket matches so far and scored 707 runs. He has been unbeaten in his last 4 innings, taking his batting average to 58.91. He has scored 2 centuries in his last 4 innings as well.

On January 25, India played the 2nd T20 match against England in the ongoing 5-match series. England, batting first, set a target of 166. While the entire top order struggled to score and got out without scoring many runs, Tilak Varma remained not out and took India home in the final over. He remained not out on 72.