MUMBAI: Suddenly, Mumbai Indians are unrecognisable from the stuttering team which lost four of its first five matches. The five-time champions are known to be slow starters who gather pace gradually, and it could be the same story this season as well.
The catalyst for the change this time is their young batter Tilak Varma, who hammered a brilliant, match-winning hundred (101*-45 balls) against Gujarat Titans on Monday.
Varma himself had struggled for form with a sequence of 20, 0, 14, 1 and 8 in his first five outings. Against GT with MI again in the doldrums at 44/3, the left-hander too had laboured to 19 off 22 balls before he produced one of the most stunning batting accelerations.
He brought up his maiden IPL hundred in 45 balls. Varma’s last 82 runs came off 23 balls, helping MI amass 96 runs in the final six overs. As a result, MI go into the game against Chennai Super Kings on Thursday a transformed side, brimming with confidence.
The flick of switch in Varma’s batting was the result of a discussion with senior teammate Rohit Sharma, he revealed during his media interaction on Wednesday. Sharma sat out the game due to an injury.
“If you see, in the last few games, I didn’t get much time on the wicket and I had to go from the start. So, sometimes it goes my way, sometimes we get out. So, I was talking with Rohit bhai, and he told me: “you play 15-20 balls and you know what your capability is. After playing 15 balls, what you will do, we know and everyone knows. So just do this. Don’t look at the situation, don’t look at anything”.”
“First, play 15 balls. After that, whatever happens, we’ll see the result later. So that gave me confidence. That was in my mind that I will play 15 balls and see the rest after that. So, when I had played 15 balls, automatically the instinct took over. The more you play, the better you time the ball, you adapt to the wicket. These are the basics. So, after that the result came.”
Varma has time and again come up with match-winning innings, both for his IPL team and India’s T20 side. But he is the kind of batter who his team doesn’t know what to expect on the day. He could start playing fluently from ball one and play a blinder while on the other days he will look laborious.
Asked how he processes the phase when the runs are not coming, he said: “I always think at that moment what I need (to do). Sometimes I feel like I have to practice more. Sometimes I feel like I have to stay off the game. I think before going to sleep, how my mind is feeling.
“Even in the (2026 T20) World Cup, my first 2-3 matches were decent. At that time, I felt like I had to practice more, so I was practicing a lot.
“So, when I didn’t do well in the first 2-3 matches (this IPL), I felt like I have to stay off the game. So, I didn’t practice much,” he said.
“The person I wanted to talk to was my childhood coach, about my batting. After talking to him, I was relaxed. I didn’t practice much. I knew it was just a matter of one innings, and I’ll be there. So, at the right time, it came (the hundred).”
Talking about his stunning acceleration in the slog overs, Tilak said: “I have got fancy shots. I can play with a straight bat. So, whenever the team demands I stay on the wicket, I’ll do that. And whenever the team needs to score runs, then I’ll just switch gears.”
During his 81-run fifth wicket partnership with skipper Hardik Pandya, one could see how the MI skipper kept on encouraging Tilak. In the India side, he plays under Suryakumar Yadav. Asked about the difference in their captaincy style, Tilak said:
“Hardik bhai always backs the players. If you see the last game, he was saying that you will do it, you will do it. So, he keeps motivating the players with his energy. Surya bhai is more into the tactical side.
“Both are good in their aspects. And I am enjoying Surya bhai’s captaincy and I am enjoying Hardik bhai’s captaincy as well.”
