Tilak Varma placed on the same pedestal as MS Dhoni by the former India star

Former Indian national cricket team batsman Sanjay Manjrekar has compared youngster Tilak Varma to legendary wicketkeeper-batsman MS Dhoni.

Sanjay Manjrekar made this great comparison after Tilak Varma’s sensational batting performance in the second T20I against England National Cricket Team at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chepauk, Chennai.

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Tilak Varma emerged as a lone warrior in Chennai T20I

The 22-year-old Tilak Varma was the lone warrior for the Indian national cricket team in the second T20I. He played a stellar innings to guide his team to victory and take a 2-0 lead in the series.

Varma started his innings aggressively and took the English bowlers to clean-up. He particularly destroyed pace opener Jofra Archer as he smashed 30 runs off 9 balls.

After starting aggressively initially, Varma had to play a little cautiously in the middle overs as India lost wickets at regular intervals. Tilak Varma showed a calm approach and did not let the fall of wickets affect his game.

He took the game to the end and ended the game with a four. Tilak Varma also won the Player of the Match award for his unbeaten knock of 72 runs.

I was very happy to have been there pretty much till the end: Sanjay Manjrekar

Speaking on ESPNCricinfo’s Timeout after the match, Manjrekar stated that Varma had immense confidence in his abilities to take India past the finish line as he did not panic even when the boundaries failed they arrived

“Absolutely. The confidence he has that he will be able to see India through to the end and even in this chase, there was no panic around the 18th,” he stated.

“Even at the end of the 19th over, you could see that India were not getting the boundary that could ease the pressure. But I was very happy to be there pretty much till the end,” Manjrekar added.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni had the same confidence – Sanjay Manjrekar

Sanjay Manjrekar added that the confidence shown by Tilak Varma reminded him of the legendary MS Dhoni, who also used to take the game deep and finish matches for the Indian national cricket team.

“He looks like the guy who has confidence and is the guy who can carry his team, 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 up that role, which is not such a bad thing,” Sanjay Manjrekar said.

Meanwhile, former Pakistan cricketer Basit Ali praised Tilak Varma for his heroics with a cheeky comment. In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Basit Ali said that Varma has started performing exceptionally since he started wearing long hair.

“Tilak Varma (is) too good since he started having long hair. I’m joking (laughs),” said the former cricketer of the Pakistan national cricket team.