Star Indian batter Tilak Varma recounted a frightening incident from his 2022 Bangladesh tour. During an India A match, he was forced to retire hurt while batting, unable to continue. Tilak had suffered a muscle breakdown following IPL 2022 but kept playing domestic matches without proper recovery.
Pushing himself further worsened the injury. In the India A game, he had to leave the field and was rushed to the hospital. Being with the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the time, Tilak revealed that Akash Ambani reached out to the BCCI for assistance. He admitted that his condition could have become far more serious if there had been any delay in getting medical attention.
“I was playing an India A game in Bangladesh. After a point my eyes became watery, I was not even able to lift the bat and all my nerves were hard. I retired hurt and came out. Akash Ambani called me right away.”
”He spoke to the BCCI and they helped me a lot. At the hospital they told me it could have gotten worse if I had come even a few hours late. It was that bad. Even the needle was not going in. I just wanted to come out alive,” he said on ‘Breakfast with Champions’.
Luckily, Tilak Varma bounced back completely and delivered standout performances for India in the recently concluded Asia Cup 2025. He accumulated 213 runs across six innings, averaging 71. In the final, his unbeaten 69 under tense conditions played a key role in India securing the title.
Tilak Varma Credits Coach, Reveals How He Built Resilience
Tilak Varma credited his childhood coach for his guidance, recalling encouragement even before state-level success. The left-hander’s calmness under pressure in the Asia Cup 2025 final, he said, stemmed from the struggles of his early days.
“My coach told me that he knew I would make it big and become the number one player. He would tell me this even when I had not started playing for Hyderabad yet. Many people also went against me and told things to my coach. But he never listened to anyone and worked a lot on me.”
“There were times when I even fell at people’s feet asking for just one opportunity to play. That made me a hard person. People say I do well under pressure. But I have seen such things that make me hard and all this feels like nothing,” he said.
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