“Suryakumar Yadav might be thinking why he did that” – Aakash Chopra on Tilak Varma on grabbing No. 3 position IND vs SA 2024 4th T20I

Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra showered praise on Aakash Chopra after Tilak Varma grabbed his opportunity of batting at one down in the last two T20Is against South Africa. After scoring 107 runs in the third game at Centurion, Varma continued his purple patch, scoring 120 runs off just 47 balls in the fourth T20I at the Wanderers, Johannesburg on Friday, which India won by a huge margin to 135 runs to seal the series by 3-1. 

Before the third T20I, Varma had requested Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav to let him bat at number three. The left-hander scored nine fours and 10 maximums in his blistering knock as he batted at the top of his game in the fourth game. Varma added 210 runs with Sanju Samson and helped India in posting 283 runs on the board.

“Tilak Varma came at No. 3 and Suryakumar Yadav might be thinking why he did that. He (Tilak) knocked on his door and said – ‘Surya bhau, make me bat at No. 3’, and he has scored two back-to-back centuries at No. 3,” Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.

Scoring back to back T20I centuries, Varma became the second Indian batter after Sanju Samson to achieve the feat.

“Sanju became the first player to score three T20I centuries in a year, incidentally, he has done it in five matches only. Tilak Varma became the second Indian, Sanju became the first Indian recently, to score two back-to-back centuries,” he observed.

On the other hand, Mumbai Indians decided to retain Tilak Varma ahead of IPL 2025 auction along with Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav. The renowned commentator feels it is a steal deal.

“I am thinking what a great deal the Mumbai Indians have struck. They have picked Tilak Varma cheaply. If Tilak had reached the auction after these two centuries, ₹15 crore would have been sure. However, any which way, India thrashed them a lot,” he said.

Meanwhile, Varma also had the rub of the green on his side as he was dropped twice by Keshav Maharaj and Gerald Coetzee. Chopra reckons India could have reached 300 but Samson and Varma slowed down a bit at the fag end.

“In fact, I felt they slowed down a little in the end. If they had not slowed down, they would have scored 300 runs as well. No one was taking catches. Tilak Varma batted extremely well. He was hitting sixes even with reverse sweeps but South Africa came after applying butter on their hands,” Chopra observed.

Varma was also Player of the Series for scoring 280 runs in four matches at an average of 140.