Tilak Varma has made a resounding start to his India T20I carer on the ongoing West Indies tour. The youngster from Andhra Pradesh received great praise from veteran India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
On pitches that were two-paced and tacky and difficult to score on, Tilak Varma looked fluent, calm, and settled, and showed no nerves of playing in his debut international series.
He opened his account in T20I cricket with two dashing sixes to Alzarri Joseph in the first T20I, where he scored 39 runs off 22 balls in Trinidad. In the second T20I, in Guyana, Tilak Varma notched up his maiden T20I fifty, scoring 51 off 41 while no other Indian batter could go past 30.
Even as India lost both matches, Tilak Varma was India’s biggest positive in those two games, also further laying down the future foundation to return to the West Indies for next year’s T20 World Cup 2024.
Ravichandran Ashwin lavishes rich praise for Tilak Varma
Ahead of the third T20I on Tuesday, R Ashwin took to Twitter to hail Varma’s “special talent”. Ashwin asserted that the 20-year-old will only keep getting better and better with age and experience in different conditions and formats.
“Been watching Tilak bat in the last 2 games. He looks like a special talent in this format. The more new experiences he gets, the better he is going to get. Excited for this boy,” Ashwin tweeted.
Varma had had a terrific couple of IPL seasons with the Mumbai Indians, which even led to skipper Rohit Sharma last year predicting that the left-hander will play all three formats for India in the future.
In his debut IPL season last year, Tilak Varma racked up 397 runs at an average of 36 and carried the fledgling Mumbai Indians batting last season.
He had a bumper IPL 2023: Tilak scored 343 runs in 11 innings this season, averaging 42 and scoring at a strike rate of 164.
The third India vs West Indies T20I, which is a must-win game for India, will be played on Tuesday in Guyana.
