India ‘A’ captain Tilak Varma said he’s trying to implement his learnings from Rohit Sharma in the ongoing tri-series against Sri Lanka A and Afghanistan A. Tilak, who was also promoted to the national men’s T20I vice-captaincy, said he’s keenly observing all his teammates, especially how they react under pressure, so he can use that knowledge and relationship during crunch situations in the match.
Tilak, considered quite close to Rohit and his family, made his IPL and India debut under the Mumbaikar and established himself as a promising player for the white-ball formats. Now, the 23-year-old is the youngest contender for the captaincy slots in the Indian team and is seemingly being groomed for the job in the shortest format under Shreyas Iyer,
while also retaining Gautam Gambhir’s trust.
This tri-series hasn’t been too impressive from him. He has scored 208 runs in four innings, but with a lowly strike-rate of 75.09, often getting stuck at the crease against spinners. As a captain, he has lost his cool several times, most worryingly in the tense Super-Over defeat against Sri Lanka A.
“There have been a lot of learnings, especially around handling pressure,” Tilak told Sportstar in an interview. “We came into this tournament as a group that hadn’t played together before. Everyone was coming from different teams and different IPL environments, and then suddenly they had to come together for India-A. What helped was that everyone has played enough domestic cricket. As a captain, the biggest learning for me has been understanding each player — how they react under pressure, what their mindset is and how to get the best out of them. I spend a lot of time with players off the field because that helps me understand them better,” he added.
“I’ve seen Rohit bhai do that with Mumbai Indians and with the Indian team. I know how important those relationships become when you’re out in the middle. I’ve tried to implement some of those things here, and it’s worked well so far,” Tilak said.
India A and Sri Lanka A will meet again in the final of the tri-series on Sunday, which would be the biggest test of Tilak’s nous.
