Former Indian cricketer Mohammed Azharuddin hailed Tilak Varma following a calm and composed knock in a tense run chase against New Zealand in the second T20I, while also expressing hope that he gets to play Test cricket for India as well. Tilak Varma's love affair with run chases and death overs batting continued as he and Nitish Kumar Reddy pulled Team India out of troubled waters, stitching a 69-run stand to chase down 181 runs with a ball to spare at Christchurch. Once again while batting in the middle-order, Tilak brought his game awareness and ball striking, calculated acceleration while chasing. Speaking to ANI after the match, Azharuddin, one of the finest cricketers to emerge out of Hyderabad, said, "Today, I am very happy with the way Tilak Varma has played. He is a very good player, and I sincerely hope and pray that he gets the opportunity to play Test cricket. For me, Test cricket is the most important format, and I hope he goes on to represent India in Tests a...
Former Indian cricket team batter Aakash Chopra believes that Kolkata Knight Riders' decision to drop Venkatesh Iyer for the final IPL 2025 group stage match against Sunrisers Hyderabad was a glimpse at their strategy for next year. Venkatesh, who was bought for a mammoth Rs 23.75 crore in the mega auction, featured in the impact substitute list for KKR on Sunday but was not used by the side. During his analysis on YouTube, Aakash said that this can be an indicator that Venkatesh can be released by the franchise ahead of the next season and the franchise can try to buy him back for a lower price.
"The big news for me from this match was that they didn't play Venkatesh Iyer. He was in the impact substitute's list, but you didn't get him to bat. You got Manish Pandey and Angkrish Raghuvanshi to bat, and you played Ramandeep Singh and Rinku Singh. You played everyone, but you left Venky out."
"Is that the indicator that Venky will be released next year? You will release ₹23 crore, and then you may want to buy him back at a lesser price. That is a possibility, but I feel we have got an indicator for next year," he added.
Kolkata Knight Riders captain Ajinkya Rahane said underwhelming batting performances by key players like Rinku Singh and Andre Russell, was the main reason for the defending champions' disappointing eighth-place finish this IPL season.
Rahane said while the bowling unit largely met expectations, the failure of three-four main batters derailed their campaign. KKR's season ended with a crushing 110-run defeat to Sunrisers Hyderabad here on Monday.
"It's just that for us as a team, three-four guys were out of form. Where we faltered was at the batting end. As a batting unit, collectively, we couldn't do well," Rahane said during the post-match media interaction.
"Unfortunately, two-three players were going through that phase for us. And that was the reason we couldn't do well...But again, they are pretty much experienced enough to handle this situation.
"I'm sure they will come back stronger next year...Rinku (Singh), Raman (Ramandeep Singh), all the players, they will learn from the mistakes and come back stronger."
(With PTI inputs)
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