Asia Cup 2023: "Hard To Find A Weakness In Tilak Varma" - Sanjay Manjrekar, Tom Moody Praise India's Brave Selection Call

Former India National Cricket Team and Australia National Cricket Team cricketers, Sanjay Manjrekar and Tom Moody, have given their verdict on the selection of the 20-year-old batter Tilak Varma for the upcoming Asia Cup 2023.

On Monday, August 21, Ajit Agarkar and Rohit Sharma announced India’s Asia Cup squad at a press conference and gave the reasons behind the selections and non-selections of players. Tilak Varma’s inclusion was one of the biggest talking points as the batter is yet to make his ODI debut and just recently represented India on the international stage in T20Is.

Tilak performed consistently in all five matches of the T20I series against West Indies and finished as the leading run-getter for India with 173 runs in his bag. However, he has failed miserably in the ongoing three-match T20I series against Ireland.

Talking about Tilak, Sanjay Manjrekar said that the batter is extremely talented and doesn’t have any weaknesses.

“He is in hot form. Look at his domestic career, he’s got the numbers to merit a call for India. And also, tongue in cheek, he is also getting ready for 50-overs cricket by failing in his last two matches in the T20 format. So, he is getting ready for 50-over cricket.

“It is hard to find a weakness in him, in white ball cricket. And as I’ve mentioned before, let’s have some impact, quality players at number four, five, and six. There’s a tremendous rush for spots number one, two, and three, in Indian cricket, let’s have these number four, five, six batters out there,” Manjrekar told on Star Sports.

I think it’s a wonderful selection – Tom Moody on Tilak Varma

Moody, meanwhile, labeled Tilak’s selection as a brave and wonderful call. He said that the youngster has shown great temperament and will be a valuable asset to the team in the middle order.

“I think it’s a wonderful selection. I’ll call it brave, but I also call it in the same breath smart. He is clearly a player on the rise, as I touched on earlier,” Moody said while talking about Varma on Star Sports.

“He’s got not only skill but an enormous temperament, and he is showing that on a regular basis. We have talked about the value of left-handedness in the top order, so him coming in at that number five or six position is going to be valuable for India, particularly to have that balance against spin.”

Asia Cup 2023 will commence on Wednesday, August 30, and the summit clash will be held on Sunday, September 17.