Tilak Varma said this to his coach Salam Bayash after a 44 off 16 balls against Zimbabwe. The World Cup had not gone well until then — three games at number three, the shots not coming, the runs not following. The order change had been forced. The cameo had arrived. And now the pupil was telling his teacher: watch. Bayash chuckles, recalling it to this newspaper.
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Eleven years earlier, Namboori Nagaraju was an electrician whose son wanted to play cricket. The academy was forty kilometres away — Barkas to Lingampally, every day. He looked at those numbers and said no.
Bayash said he would sort the transport. He would waive the fees. The father didn’t need to pick Tilak up or drop him off. Then they agreed.
India’s Tilak Varma plays a shot during the T20 World Cup cricket match between India and West Indies in Kolkata, India, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Bikas Das)
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Before the World Cup, an injury had knocked Tilak back. He was feeling down, uncertain. Bayash had seen this before. “Ups and downs are common,” he told Tilak. “Every cricketer tends to get injured, even the greatest. They are mentally strong and with you too, this time shall pass.”
Tilak left for the NCA, completed his rehabilitation, came back fit and strong. Then the World Cup began — and new pressures arrived.
The early games were difficult. Tilak at number three looked unlike himself. When the team pushed him down the order after the Super 8 loss to South Africa, Bayash didn’t soften his words. This was not the moment for encouragement. “You are not making runs because your shot selection is not right,” he said. “Focus on the errors you are making.”
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It is what Bayash had always done — adapted his advice to what Tilak needed. In the early years he scolded. As Tilak grew and the stakes rose, the scolding gave way to encouragement. But there are moments when a pupil needs the original version of his teacher. After South Africa, this was one of them.
The cameo against Zimbabwe followed. Sixteen balls. Forty-four runs. And the phone call to Bayash. “I will play in all positions and show now.”
Before the final, Tilak sought his guru out one more time. The advice was the same simplicity it had always been. “Whatever position you are given to bat, do that well. We are one step away from the dream. Even if you don’t get the batting, do your best fielding, beta.”
Tilak scored eight from six balls. He took two catches — Finn Allen in the deep, Jacob Duffy at the end to complete India’s win.
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Bayash had seen something in the twelve-year-old boy from the beginning — not just talent but a quality harder to find. “The kids these days, after playing a bit, change,” he said. “This boy is still the same. His family is also the same. They treat me like their own family.”
From the start, Bayash drilled him for every position, every situation. In the academy games, Tilak batted at different numbers, faced both the newer ball and the older. “Bhai, apko har situation pe tayar rehna hai.” Every situation demands a different kind of batting. When the World Cup pushed Tilak down the order mid-tournament, he was ready — because Bayash had prepared him for exactly this, years before the tournament existed.
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When Bayash was in the ICU with COVID — fifteen days, the doctor saying chances were slim — Tilak came to the hospital every day. Bayash, even then, scolded him. Go practice. Stop coming. Tilak stopped entering the room. He sat outside instead. He spoke to the doctors. He consoled Bayash’s wife that he would take care of things.
India’s Tilak Varma plays a shot during the T20 World Cup cricket semi-final match between India and England in Mumbai, India, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
“I could see his love and respect for me at the time,” Bayash said. Nagaraju had wanted his son to study medicine. Tilak, twelve years old, had a different view.
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“If I study medicine, I will be known in Hyderabad,” he told his father. “If I play sports, I will be known at the world level.”
That sentence, Nagaraju said, touched his heart. He let his son go to Bayash. Forty kilometres every day. Fees waived. Transport sorted.
These days, Tilak still returns to the Legala academy. Not just to talk to Bayash but to speak to the younger cricketers coming up. When they ask him for advice, he tells them: “Learn how to work hard from Bayash sir. How to navigate different conditions — come to me.”
On Sunday in Ahmedabad, Tilak Varma took the catch that finished the World Cup final. He went straight to his family. Then to Bayash.
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“He was a 12-year-old boy and is now 23 years old,” Bayash said. “Jitna happy tha uska koi word nahi.”
He put the medal around his coach’s neck. The man who had waived the fees, sorted the transport, told a boy outside an ICU to go home and practice.
