Tilak Varma scored his maiden IPL ton for Mumbai Indians.
Tilak Varma, who played a crucial role in the Mumbai Indians' (MI) win over the Gujarat Titans (GT) the other day in IPL 2026 in Ahmedabad, has revealed what went down between him and captain Hardik Pandya when they were batting together.
MI was asked to bat first by GT captains Shubman Gill and Kagiso Rabada, who had hurt them badly with quick wickets of Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav. Tilak Varma, who was struggling with 19 runs in 29 balls, went on to make 101* in 45 balls, taking MI to 199/5 in 20 overs.
GT was then blown away by Ashwani Kumar (4/24) as they were bowled out for 100 runs, as MI won the game by 99 runs.
Tilak Varma had received some encouraging words from Hardik Pandya during a break when they were batting together, and Varma has now revealed that he had to tell Pandya to cool down a bit.
“As everyone knows, Hardik bhai is very energetic. He was charged up and kept saying, ‘You can do it, you will do it!’ to boost me. “I just asked him to calm down because I needed to stay focused, and I assured him that I would take care of the rest," Varma said in conversation on the IPL website.
Tilak admitted he felt pressure to perform after a quiet start to the season. Tilak said he quickly understood the nature of the pitch and chose to play straight shots.
“It was very important for the team and for me. Over the last four or five games, the one thing constantly running through my head was that I hadn’t spent much time in the middle and hadn’t faced many balls, so my aim was to spend some time at the wicket and then adapt according to the team’s situation.
Whenever MI comes to Ahmedabad, they usually give us a black-soil wicket, which is a bit slow in nature. It’s not that our batters cannot adapt, but we know what we can do if there is more bounce. Since it was slow and low, we had to adjust and try to hit straight. There wasn’t much bounce, so playing across the line to deliveries in line with the stumps was risky. I decided to hit straighter, and I read the conditions well; thankfully, I was able to score some runs,” he added.
While Tilak has been batting everywhere for MI, he stated that he preferred the no. 3 spot.
“Personally, I like batting at number three a lot. However, I am happy to bat wherever the team needs me, because since childhood, I have practiced in a way that allows me to play confidently in any position. But if someone asks me, I will always say number three," he said.
Tilak is hoping that the Mumbai Indians will be able to turn things around after this win moves them up to eighth.
“I am grateful that it worked out that way. However, we shouldn’t look too far ahead and should take one match at a time. Every game is almost like a knockout for us. We know what we are capable of, having several World Cup winners in the side, experienced players, and the skills we possess. If we execute well, we can be unstoppable. So, it is important to keep our heads down and continue working hard," he added.