IPL 2023: Mumbai Indians' Boucher lauds investment in youngsters; wants them to show up

While RCB thrashed MI by eight wickets on Monday, the find of last season, Tilak Varma, once again showed a lot of promise along with Punjab youngster Nehal Wadhera.

Mumbai Indians head coach Mark Boucher is confident that the youngsters on whom the franchise has been investing for the past few years will stand up and be counted in this edition of the Indian Premier League.

While RCB thrashed MI by eight wickets on Monday, the find of last season, Tilak Varma, once again showed a lot of promise along with Punjab youngster Nehal Wadhera.

Varma cracked an unbeaten 46-ball 84, while Wadehra scored 21 off 13 deliveries.

"The IPL is a massive event and it's going to be a great opportunity for some of our young boys to really show up," Boucher said in a media release issued by MI.

"The way Mumbai Indians have selected their squads over the last few years has been, how you invest in youngsters for the future. It's now time for those youngsters to show up and basically get the opportunities," the former Proteas keeper said.

MI's bowling coach Shane Bond credited the youngsters for helping MI reaching 171 in the opening game.

"Tilak played brilliantly, and so did the other youngsters," he said.

Speaking after his innings, Varma said, "I always back my shots, and I was doing the same thing here. I was asking my partners what could be a good total here and going accordingly."

(With inputs from PTI)