Having missed Mumbai Indians‘ previous match against the Chennai Super Kings in the ongoing 16th season of the Indian Premier League, Southpaw middle-order batter Tilak Varma is not part of their playing XI in tonight’s fixture against the Royal Challengers Bangalore as well.
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Having become the only IPL team ever to have chased scores in excess of the 200-run mark in two consecutive matches (this season), MI skipper Rohit Sharma expectedly decided to bowl first post winning the Toss.
Tristan Stubbs, who had replaced Varma during the previous match has been benched as well, with the think-tank deciding to play two additional seamers in Chris Jordan and Jason Behrendorff, with their forefront pacer Jofra Archer having flown back to England.
Is Tilak Varma Injured
Yes. Although the nature and extent of his injury has not been communicated by the MI camp or their official social media handles, Varma had missed the previous match against CSK due to a slight injury.
Post the Toss ahead of their aforementioned match, Rohit Sharma had remarked, “Tilak Varma is slightly injured, he’s replaced by Tristan Stubbs.”
One can only speculate that the nature of injury is perhaps a point of concern, as Varma has not been named in the impact substitute list as well, which means that he cannot come into bat during MI’s run-chase at the Wankhede Stadium tonight.
Tilak Varma’s performance in IPL 2023
The 20-year-old left-hander has been in phenomenal touch in the ongoing IPL season as well. Presently MI’s third-highest run-scorer in IPL 2023, Varma has amassed 274 runs across nine innings, at an average and strike rate of 45.66 and 158.38 respectively.
His previous innings this IPL season – a blistering cameo (26* off 10) against Punjab Kings in Mohali, had hogged the limelight due to the manner in which he had thwacked Arshdeep Singh all across the park.
Who will be Mumbai Indians’ impact player versus RCB tonight?
With MI set to chase, it will definitely be one of the batters who will act as their impact substitute. Left-arm spinner Raghav Goyal, pacer Sandeep Warrier, and Proteas batter Tristan Stubbs will thus, not be substituted tonight.
One of the other two names in list – Ramandeep Singh or wicket-keeper batter Vishnu Vinod, will thus, likely replace one of the bowlers in the playing XI if required.
