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Indian cricketer Tilak Varma paid a visit to Tirupati temple on Thursday (February 22) with his family ahead of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) season.
The visit comes days just after he guided Hyderabad to the Plate Ranji Trophy, where they beat Meghalaya in the final to qualify for the Elite Ranji Trophy next season.
As a skipper, Varma led Hyderabad to four consecutive wins in the first-class tournament. With the bat, he amassed 412 runs in five innings at an average of 137.33, including three centuries and one fifty. The middle-order batter is now spending quality time with his family before joining the Mumbai Indians (MI) camp ahead of IPL 2024.
Varma shared a picture on Instagram with a picturesque background of Tirupati temple. The 21-year-old can be seen with his father, mother, and younger brother. He wrote in the caption:
“Seeking blessings at Tirupati temple with my loved ones.”
Varma, however, has failed to impress with the bat in the T20Is, managing scores of 26,0,29 in his last three T20I outings. The left-handed batter will now look to deliver for MI in the IPL and make his case for a place in India's 2024 T20 World Cup squad. The ICC tournament is scheduled to be played in the United States of America and the West Indies.
On the IPL front, Varma has been impressive with the bat for MI, which helped him earn his India call last year. He has scored 740 runs in 25 innings at a strike rate of 144.53, hitting three half-centuries, for the IPL giants.
“He was on our scouting list” – Mike Hesson's big regret about Tilak Varma in IPL
Former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) director of cricket Mike Hesson has said that he regretted missing out on securing the services of Tilak Varma at IPL auction 2022. He recently told cricket.com:
"Tilak Varma was one player that slipped away. He was on our scouting list. We went for Rajat Patidar at that time. We needed to make a decision on who we were going for."
Tilak Varma was eventually bought by MI for INR 1.7 crore.
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