Dream Come True: Mumbai Indians Batter Thanks County Team For Opportunity

Young Indian batter Tilak Varma had a fruitful stint with Hampshire at the County Championship. He slammed a hundred on county debut against Essex and then followed that up with scores of 56, 47, 112, 5 and 38. He did not make much of an impact in the One-Day Cup as he managed to score just 54 runs across three innings, with two of them resulting in a duck, including his debut against Glamorgan.

Reflecting about his England stint on social media, Tilak has thanked the team for giving him an opportunity to live out his dream of playing county cricket. “Growing up, I dreamt of playing County cricket. This year, that dream came true with Hampshire,” Tilak wrote on Instagram. 

“My first red ball experience here, along with the ODI games, taught me lessons I will carry for life, not just as a cricketer, but as a person. Thank you, Hampshire CC, for the trust, the warmth, and memories I'll never forget.”

Tilak is the second-ranked T20I batter, behind countryman Abhishek Sharma. He has scored 749 runs at 49.93 along with a strike rate of 155.07 for India in the format. He has been part of the Mumbai Indians (MI) set up since 2022 and has slammed 1,499 runs for them in 51 innings at a strike rate of 144.41, including eight fifties.