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‘Surya more tactical’: Tilak Varma on the differences between playing under Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya

Tilak Varma has played under Suryakumar Yadav for the national side and under Hardik Pandya for MI over the past few years

Tilak Verma of Mumbai Indians celebrates the after scoring a hundred during Match 30 of the TATA Indian Premier League 2026. (Photo by Surjeet Yadav / CREIMAS for IPLPhoto by Surjeet Yadav / CREIMAS for IPL)

Written by: Shankar Narayan

4 min readApr 22, 2026 08:32 PM IST First published on: Apr 22, 2026 at 08:32 PM IST

Indian cricket finds itself in a slightly peculiar situation right now with its leadership. Suryakumar Yadav is the Indian T20I captain, but does not lead his IPL franchise, the Mumbai Indians. Instead, all-rounder Hardik Pandya leads the five-time champions in the T20 league and plays under Surya in national colours.

The players have to adapt to the varied styles, one of whom is Tilak Varma, who is part of the India and MI setups. The left-hander said Surya was more of a tactical captain, while Pandya was motivational in his approach.

“To be honest, Surya was a bit tactical. And Hardik bhai, he always backs the players and himself. If you see the last game, he was saying that ‘you will do it, you will do it and show it’. So he keeps motivating the players. Hardik bhai’s captaincy is kind of that energy. And Surya bhai is more into the tactical side. So both are good in their aspects and I am enjoying Surya bhai’s captaincy and I am enjoying Hardik bhai’s captaincy as well,” Tilak said in the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

One of MI’s concerns leading up to the match against CSK on Thursday is the continuous lack of runs from Surya’s bat. Tilak, though, quashed all talks of him being out of nick.

“I would not say that Surya is out of form. He is batting well. If you see, whatever shots he is hitting in the match, it is coming right from the middle of the bat and it doesn’t look like he is out of touch. The batting is going well. Sometimes you get a good ball and sometimes you have to take a chance. If you see, I think against RCB he hit a sweep, so that was his shot.”

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“Sometimes it happens, the game is such that it happens. But I don’t think he is out of form. It’s just a matter of one innings. If he gets an innings, he will come back in touch. He is waiting. The same thing happened in the World Cup – in the first match against USA, it was a crucial innings. Because in the starting match of the World Cup, if he doesn’t do well, the team’s atmosphere is low. So he did it there. So it’s a matter of one innings and he will be back,” the southpaw said.

Speaking about his own preferred batting position in the MI setup, the 23-year-old said that he wished to bat at number three, but was willing to adapt to the team’s needs.

“The same question I have been hearing for the last three years. As I said before, I would always love to bat at No. 3, but I am always up for where the team needs me, whether it is 4, 5, 6 or 7 – anywhere, I am ready.”

“Because I have batted in different positions over the last three years, I know which situation, how to behave, which bowler I can attack and how the wicket behaves. Whenever the innings goes deeper, the ball gets slightly softer and comes onto the bat differently. So according to that, I change my plans and all these things. I have my game plans. Wherever the team needs me to bat, I am up for it,” he added.

Shankar Narayan

Based in Mumbai, Shankar Narayan has over five years of experience and his reporting has ranged from... Read More