Mumbai Indians star shines on Hampshire debut in County Championship

India and Mumbai Indians batter Tilak Varma made an impressive debut with the bat for Hampshire against Essex in the County Championship Division One match in Chelmsford on Monday, June 23. The left-hander scored 98* off 234 balls.

Essex won the toss and elected to bat first in the four-day match, which began on Sunday. They were all-out for 296 in 98.1 overs as Charlie Allison scored 101 and Matt Critchley 71. For Hampshire, Kyle Abbott claimed 5-26.

In response to Essex' first innings total of 296, Hampshire went to stumps at 293-4, trailing their opponents by just three runs, with six wickets in hand. Varma came into bat at No. 4, with his team in a spot of bother at 34-2. He added 62 runs for the third wicket with Fletcha Middleton (61) and 68 for the fourth wicket with skipper Ben Brown (42).

Varma and Liam Dawson (79*) then featured in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 129. The Indian batter occupied the crease for 300 minutes and hit 11 fours and three sixes during his stay out in the middle. Varma would look to complete a memorable hundred on Day 3 of the match against Essex.

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Tilak Varma had an underwhelming season for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025

Before joining Hampshire for the ongoing county season, Varma represented Mumbai Indians in IPL 2025. The southpaw had an underwhelming season, scoring 343 runs in 13 innings at an average of 31.18 and a strike rate of 138.30, with two half-centuries and a best of 59. He was retired out in a match against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) after scoring 25 off 23 in a chase of 204.

In his overall IPL career, Varma has played 54 matches for Mumbai Indians and has scored 1,499 runs at an average of 37.47 and a strike rate of 144.41, with the aid of eight half-centuries. His best of 84* was registered against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in Bengaluru in April 2023. The blazing knock came off 46 balls and featured nine fours and four sixes.

Before making his debut for Hampshire, Varma had only featured in 18 first-class games in which he scored 1,204 runs at an average of 50.16, with five hundreds and four half-centuries.