Will Mumbai Indians follow the India template in IPL 2025?
Tilak Varma produced a peak Virat Kohli-esque style T20 knock in Chennai to pull off an incredible win for India against England in the second T20I. With IPL 2025 not too far away, there are a few takeaways for Mumbai Indians from this current template India have been following under Suryakumar Yadav.
Last year, in nine out of 14 matches, Mumbai Indians had Suryakumar Yadav at No.3. Naman Dhir batted at the position in the remaining five games without much success. But ironically, Suryakumar too wasn’t too successful from No.3, making just 187 runs at an average just over 20.
Meanwhile, Tilak Varma, batting between No.4 to No.6 the entire season was the second-highest run-scorer for MI (one run below Rohit Sharma) with 416 runs at an average of 41.6, while maintaining a strike-rate of 149.64.
The season obviously didn’t go well for MI with them finishing at the bottom of the table and the inability of the batting unit to click was one of the primary reasons behind their downfall. While the team, like the remaining nine, has undergone a shakeup after the mega auction, there’s a leaf Mumbai Indians can take out of India’s new-found template under Suryakumar Yadav the T20I captain to revamp their strategy for IPL 2025.
Under SKY, Tilak Varma has often been promoted to No.3 in the Indian lineup with the captain moving himself down the order to accomodate the left-hander at the key position below the openers.
There’s no conclusive evidence yet to confirm that India are looking to maintain a LHB-RHB pair in the middle after the openers fall. But when wickets have fallen towards the end of the powerplay at least, India have ensured they try and bring a LHB-RHB together where possible. This is likely to counter the spin threat, but they haven’t been very consistent with this yet to underline it as a well-thought-out strategy.
The initial step came after Gqeberha in South Africa when Suryakumar stated that Tilak had asked for the promotion himself.
“He (Tilak) came to my room at Gqeberha and said give me a chance at No. 3, I want to do well and I said go out there and express yourself. He asked for it and he delivered,” SKY said after Tilak’s century in Centurion.
After his latest match-winning knock in Chennai, though, Tilak said that he was prepared to bat anywhere in the line-up.
The clarity in thinking and the ability to switch gears make Tilak a very tempting option at No.3. With the SKY threat to follow, this simple swap could unlock the full intensity of this Mumbai batting line-up in IPL 2025.
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Tilak’s recent exploits show an improved ability against high-end pace too, with the left-hander taking on Jofra Archer for 30 runs in nine balls in Chennai, including a nonchalant flicked six off a 150kph delivery.
The flip side to this is Suryakumar’s own form, that has been slightly up and down of late, and a stable batting position right behind the openers with a few overs of powerplay could actually benefit him.
Will Mumbai take a horses for courses approach to maintain a LHB-RHB? Rohit Sharma and possibly Ryan Rickelton would open for Mumbai Indians, and based on who’s dismissed, MI could send out one of SKY or Tilak. It remains to be seen which route they take on IPL 2025.
