ANALYSIS
Follow UsIt is not often that Suryakumar Yadav gets overshadowed in T20 cricket, but for a six-over period at the Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba on Thursday, SKY was invisible.
He was there, yet he wasn’t.
It was not that Surya bored the viewers. In typical SKY fashion, he smashed two boundaries off his first five balls. He also pulled off an outrageous cut-shot on his 10th ball, scything Alzarri Joseph for a flat six over point.
It was just that what was happening at the other end was so darn breathtaking that you couldn’t help but ignore SKY.
With the score 28/2 after 5 overs, India having lost both openers in pursuit of 150, in walked Tilak Varma for his first ever hit in international cricket. All things considered, Tilak walked into a low-stakes, low-pressure situation but nerves are nerves. And it spares no one, not even the best.
On debut, Tilak would have been forgiven for a slow start even on the flattest of surfaces but here there was extra reason to be considerate and keep expectations in check due to the relatively sluggish nature of the surface.
And with India already having lost two early wickets, Tilak could easily have afforded to have taken as much time as he wanted, to settle and play himself into the international arena.
But while doing so would have been wise, it wouldn’t have been honest.
Fearlessness is what has brought the 20-year-old all the way here, and it’s what he’s exuded whenever he’s donned the Mumbai Indians jersey. Tilak’s dauntlessness has been as vital to his rise as much as his talent and technique.
Which is why curbing aggression, on purpose, would have been a self-betrayal. It would not have been the Tilak Varma we’ve seen over these past couple of years.
On the day, though, we witnessed The Tilak Varma alright. In his rawest, purest form.
After having bowled a decent-but-expensive first over, Alzarri Joseph would no doubt have hoped to improve his figures in the second, particularly after Suryakumar took a single off the first ball.
The single meant that Joseph not only got to bowl at a newcomer, but also a leftie, the kind he prefers: heading into the first T20I, Joseph, in all T20s, averaged lower (21.4 vs 27.4), struck more frequently (SR 15.8 vs 19.1) and had a better economy (8.1 vs 8.6) against left-handers as compared to the righties. The extra bounce Joseph generates usually troubles most lefties, particularly from over the wicket.
And so with Tilak in sight, Joseph, from over the wicket, opted to bowl a very reasonable, reliable delivery, a good-length ball — banged into the surface — angling away from the left-hander. Considering the execution of the delivery was alright, Joseph, at worst, would have expected the batter to move across and tuck it away for a single.
Tilak, though, did not move an inch, leant back and slapped it over deep mid-wicket for a huge six.
It was one of the sweetest hits of the year — the sound off the bat was something else — but it was the bowler’s expression that served as the best review for the shot: as if he’d just seen an alien do something humans are incapable of, Joseph stood there in disbelief, staring at the debutant. After not getting any eye contact from the batter, he slowly turned and trudged away, barely able to comprehend what’d just happened.
On just the second ball he faced, Tilak had signaled that he’d arrived, leaving everyone who’d tuned into watch in awe. But before anyone could fathom the audacity of what he’d just done, the youngster followed up the first six immediately with another, off a ball pitched on an identical length.
This hit was, in comparison, not as extravagant — he caressed the ball rather than flaying it — but it was as dismissive and authoritative. It once again got the same expression of approval from the bowler, who glanced at his captain helplessly in disbelief, almost to say ‘what is going on here?’.
Two balls. Two pulls. Two sixes. Tilak stole the show, and whet the appetite of the viewers enough to make him the center of attention, and make them not really care about the bloke at the other end, a certain Suryakumar Yadav.
And from an audience’s perspective, that proved to be a wise choice as while Surya continued to be quiet in the overs that followed, Tilak continued to dazzle.
After showing his range on the on-side against Joseph, the 20-year-old, in the 8th over bowled by Romario Shepherd, showcased the range he possesses on the other side of the wicket.
Shepherd, in order to take the on-side out of the equation, went full and wide in the hope of keeping the left-hander quiet. But in Suresh Raina-esque fashion, Tilak lifted the ball ever-so-elegantly and effortlessly over wide long-off to collect his third six.
Shepherd then went fuller and wider on the next ball but Tilak had an answer for that too, as he squirted the ball between short third-man and backward point to bring up another boundary.
For once, at the T20I level, Surya finally felt what the Kishans, Kohlis, Pandyas and others experience often whilst watching him from the non-striker’s end: exaltation due to the sheer absurdity of the stroke-making at the other end.
But in a general sense, this is not something new for Suryakumar, who is no stranger to witnessing superhuman strokemaking from the bat of 20-year-old Tilak.
Qualifier 2 of IPL 2023 was the last time this pair batted together and on that occasion, Surya witnessed the left-hander play out of his mind, flaying a 14-ball 43. And, coincidentally enough, on that occasion, Tilak struck a six off the second ball he faced, a hit off Mohammed Shami near-identical to the one he smacked today.
That knock came to a premature end just when it looked like Tilak was on the cusp of something special and, in many ways, the first T20I on Thursday was not too different as the 20-year-old fell after looking certain for a mammoth score.
But in a 22-ball window, Tilak went a long way in showing why he could just be the real deal.
Living up to the hype is not easy, especially if you’re a flamboyant stroke-maker. The margin of error is almost non-existent. Doing so in a country such as India, on the back of IPL-fueled hype, is a whole different beast altogether; the pressure and weight of expectations is off the charts.
Under these circumstances, it is beyond impressive that Tilak stayed true to himself and gave the world a glimpse into his potential.
On Thursday, we witnessed the quick-starting version of the left-hander and also got a little peek into his range against the quick bowlers. What’s truly exciting is that there’s a whole lot more to come — we could potentially end up witnessing it over the course of these next couple of weeks.
Prior to the first T20I, the last Indian batter to get off the mark with a six in this format was also a Mumbai Indians player, the bloke that stood at the other end today whilst Tilak was hammering those boundaries.
Tilak will turn out to be some player in this format if he can follow in the footsteps of his teammate.
