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Cricket Players‘I am up for it,’ Tilak Varma effuses after playing a make-or-break innings in a crucial Super 8 game against Zimbabwe
The India batter was demoted to No.6 from No.3 against Zimbabwe, but lo and behold, he batted like a man possessed.
The sword of Damocles was hanging over Tilak Varma in the lead-up to India's must-win game against Zimbabwe at Chennai on Thursday, it has to be said.
The India batsman had had a horrendous T20 World Cup up to that point. In the previous five games, he had had scores of 25, 25, 25, 31 and 1. While they may look too bad for T20s, the truth of the matter is his strike rate was less than 120.
In all those matches against USA, Namibia, Pakistan, Netherlands and South Africa, he looked suffocated at the crease, incapable of even taking singles, let alone hitting big boundaries. The fact India lost their first Super 8 game against South Africa by 76 runs and stared at an early exit, brought extra pressure.
So, the match was kind of a make-or-break for him. He was demoted down the order to No.6 from his usual No.3, which must have been disappointing but Varma, pushing everything to the back of his mind, batted like a man possessed. He took just 16 balls for his 44 not out. What a comeback as India posted 256/4, second highest in the history of T20 World Cup!
"I always say that whatever team needs, I am up for it. So I have done the same role [changing gears as per requirement] for the last four years in IPL for the Mumbai Indians, and also I have done in a few games for the Indian team. So I am up for it. Whatever the team needs, I am up.
"And according to the situation, I can adjust. But as I said before, I was just waiting for one innings. So I am really grateful to God for that. I am pretty confident now that, going forward, I can win the games for the team," Varma said after the match.
In the previous matches, India invariably lost a wicket early on and that forced him to restrict his shots but on Thursday, when he came to bat, India were already 172/4 in 14.5 overs. The stage was set for him to go for big shots, all thanks to opener Sanju Samson, who returned to the side for the game, Abhishek Sharma and others.
Praise for Sanju Samson and the big South Africa favour!
"So that is what Sanju started brilliantly this evening. And it was followed by everyone. And we also discussed that whatever the situation is, if we get out in powerplay like three wickets or four wickets, we bat with the same rhythm. So that's what we discussed, and we want to show the fear to the opposition that these guys are ready to hit each and every ball," Varma explained.
India got a big favour from South Africa earlier in the day as the Proteas beat the West Indies convincingly to throw the net-run rate conundrum completely out of the window. God forbid, if the Caribbean team had won, India would have been under tremendous pressure to go even harder at Zimbabwe after a massive defeat in their Super 8 opener against the Proteas, their biggest to date in T20 World Cup history, by runs that is.
"We were all watching the match, and we knew that the wicket was good and the West Indies had made fewer runs. Know the way South Africa is batting and the way the South Africa team is, we knew they would play well. The match was over before it even started," Varma said.
