Tilak Varma making the no.4 spot his own in T20Is. From three T20Is he played against West Indies, he has scored 139 runs at an average of 69.50.
India’s worry about a stable no. 4 batter in T20Is has been put to rest by none other than Tilak Varma in recent times. The stylish left-handed batter has played three international T20 innings so far, all at the prestigious number four position. Varma with scores of 39, 51 and 49* is the diamond India have been mining for long in international cricket. Unlike his franchise mates, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak wasn’t able to hit a six off the first ball of his career but bettered it a notch by smacking two consecutive sixes off the second and third balls of his international career.
The No. 4 Conundrum for India
Since January 2018, India have tried a total of 16 players at the no. 4 spot in T20I cricket. Suryakumar Yadav, who had made the spot his own in T20Is, has played the most innings – 28 - and has scored a truckload of 1102 runs at a staggering average of 52.47 with a jaw-dropping strike rate of 179.18. Apart from SKY, only Rishabh Pant (27) and Virat Kohli (13) have played more than 10 matches for India at the no. 4 position.
Since 2018, only six players have scored more than 100 runs batting at this position, and the 20-year-old Tilak is already the fifth-highest run scorer for India, batting at no. 4 since January 2018. India have tried players like Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Vijay Shankar at the number 4 position in T20Is, and the jigsaw puzzle always looked missing. With Tilak’s entry, who is a veteran at no. 4, the dots are slowly connecting for Team India as a unit.
Tilak Varma stands out!
Tilak Varma has shown tremendous composure coming into bat when India were under trouble with 28-2 in the first game chasing a total, and coming to bat at 18-2 in the second game while building the first innings score for India. His most important innings of 49* was scored again when India were 34-2 chasing 159 to help India win the match and keep the series alive.
This shows the quality of Tilak, an exclusive lofted cover driver, an amusing flicker and an even better slog sweeper who knows how to absorb pressure like a sponge and release the soaked pressure in a counterattacking way to help his team cross the line. Tilak has been the rock for his franchise team, the Mumbai Indians, for the past two years and has bailed them out of difficult situations on numerous occasions.
The icing on the cake is Tilak’s ability to bowl part-time off-spin, which in Indian conditions and in a home World Cup year sparks questions about his inclusion in the World Cup 2023 squad, where India are lacking a spin bowling all-rounder in the top 5. The left-hander, who is already generating nostalgia for a young Suresh Raina who used to loft the bowlers over covers with inside out shots, if added to the national squad will be a good choice. He has scored 52.4 per cent of his total 984 domestic runs against spin bowlers, averaging 64.5 with a hefty strike rate of 142.5.
The Indian team management has been topsy turvy throughout the last two years, and the fans would hope that Rahul Dravid’s team finally gives players their clear role understanding and freedom to fail at certain positions rather than just experimenting with players for fun. As a good scientist knows when to stop, Dravid, should by now, with Tilak’s consistent good performances, stop the search for a no. 4 batter and back the youngster to deliver even in the ODI World Cup as a backup to the senior pros.
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