Tilak Varma reciprocates MI teammate's touching act with message on maiden international call-up

India's tour of West Indies may have ended in disappointment with them falling to a stunning series defeat but it had been a good period for the players who made their international debut. Yashasvi Jaiswal plundered runs in the Test and T20I series while Mukesh Kumar impressed while making his debut in all three formats of the game.

Tilak Varma is another name who made waves in the T20I series. So impressive were his performances that he has now become a serious contender to play in the middle order for India in the 2023 World Cup, despite never having played an ODI match in his career. Tilak made his international debut in the the first T20I and ended up scoring 39, 51, 49 not out, 7 not out and 27.

On receiving his maiden cap, Dewald Brevis, the highly rated South African batter who is Varma's teammate at the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL), had congratulated the 20-year-old. Now, Brevis himself has received a maiden call-up for South Africa, being included in the ODI and T20I squads for their upcoming series against Australia. Varma reciprocated Brevis' act by congratulating him on social media. “Congratulations on your call-up brother! So happy and proud of you,” Varma wrote on his Instagram story with a screenshot of a video call between him and Brevis.

“I hope you’re very excited. I don’t know if I’m more excited that you, but I just wanna say from my side and from the Brevis family congratulations on your debut. It’s such a great moment for you and your family. I can just imagine how your parents and everyone must be. It’s great to see you out there living your dream out, and it gave me goose bumps those that second ball and third ball. Now you always have my support and all the best for the rest of their serious. I’m backing you free. And every guy for Team India,” Brevis had said in a video that was shared shared by BCCI.

Responding to the same, Varma said, “I really loved it. It was a wonderful surprise. I was thinking about that could be my coach or my family. But the other option was Dewald Brevis my brother. So it was really happy. And thank you so much. My brother always love you. Yeah, I really appreciate for your message. Yeah, I’ll see you soon. I’m calling you a video call, brother. Thank you. Thank you so much.”

'Baby AB' in international cricket

Known for the similarity in his batting style with that of South Africa great AB de Villiers, Brevis had been the top run scorer at the Under-19 World Cup in 2022. He has already featured in multiple franchise competitions apart from the IPL, including the CPL and MLC and has now earned a long-awaited international call-up.

However, the intention is more to get Brevis into international cricket and there is no plans as of yet to include him in the squad for the 2023 World Cup. South Africa's coach Rob Walter confirmed that Brevis, if part of a starting XI over the course of the two series, will bat in the middle order, and not in his usual opening spot. There are also no expectations from him to do anything other than ease into the senior team.

“It's nice to be able to give him an opportunity. He is one of our up-and-coming youngsters. We want to just broaden our base a little bit and this Australia series is an opportunity to give him a run. I won't be calling him Baby AB. We will leave AB to be AB. He is a fairly grounded young guy. It's just about creating an environment to express himself in,” said Walter.