Mumbai, April 4 (IANS) Over the years, Mumbai Indians have prided themselves in giving opportunities to young talent and backing them to the hilt as they discover and realise their full potential. They did that too in their opening match of the Indian Premier League 2023.
When Mumbai Indians took on Royal Challengers Bangalore in their season opener in IPL 2023, they fielded four uncapped players in their starting XI, two of whom were playing their first-ever IPL match.
It’s something coach Mark Boucher spoke about ahead of the season too.
“The IPL is a massive event and it’s going to be a great opportunity for some of our young boys to really show up,” Boucher had said.
“The way Mumbai Indians have selected their squads over the last few years has been, how you invest in youngsters for the future. It’s now time for those youngsters to show up and basically get the opportunities,” he was quoted as saying by Mumbai Indians in a release on Tuesday.
In its opening encounter, as Mumbai Indians lost Suryakumar Yadav in the ninth over, debutant Nehal Wadhera joined a fluent Tilak Varma at the crease. While Varma continued from where he left off last season, Wadhera came into the season on the back of a fine Ranji Trophy campaign for Punjab.
Like Varma, he made an immediate impact, steering his first ball for four. What followed over the next five overs was a masterclass in aggression. Varma and Wadhera put on a 50-run partnership of the season in just 30 balls. Wadhera made an impactful 21 off just 13 balls and injected pace into the innings taken ahead by Arshad Khan using his long handle.
MI’s bowling coach Shane Bond credited the youngsters for helping MI reach 170. RCB overhauled that score and won the match, thanks to a superb knock by Virat Kohli.
“Tilak played brilliantly, and so did the other youngsters,” he said.
Even captain Rohit Sharma picked Varma out for special praise, saying, “He is a very positive person, quite talented as well. In some of the shorts he played today, he showed a lot of courage. We wanted to be courageous enough, and hats off to Tilak for getting us to the total.”
Speaking after his innings, Varma said, “I always back my shots, and I was doing the same thing here. I was asking my partners what could be a good total here and going accordingly.”
Arshad then went on to pick his first-ever IPL and T20 wicket too, having Faf du Plessis caught on the boundary and nearly picking up Virat Kohli at the back end of the innings.
MI’s debutants along with their breakout star from last season will have to continue to perform well in upcoming matches if they want to avoid finishing the season the way they did in IPL 2022.
–IANS
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