Tilak Varma has played only 22 T20Is but he has already been taken giant strides and has made a significant impact. After smashing back-to-back hundreds in South Africa to lead India to a 3-1 series win, the 22-year-old left-hander struck an unbeaten 72 to guide the team over the line in a run-chase of 166 in the second T20I against England in Chennai.
Walking out to bat in the second over (with the score 15/1), Varma started off in blazing fashion in the powerplay as he hit three sixes and a four and raced to 26 off 15 balls. However, he lost wickets around him. Sanju Samson was dismissed when Varma was still on 1 before the latter staged a 39-run stand with skipper Suryakumar Yadav. However, the No. 1 ranked T20I batter fell in the last over of the powerplay, leaving India in trouble at 58/3.
That made Varma change gears and drop anchor. He kept losing partners at the other end and the only other significant partnership he had was with Washington Sundar who made 26 off 19 balls. The left-handed duo shared a 38-run stand for the 6th wicket after India were 78/5 in the 10th over.
With 40 runs needed off the last five overs and just three wickets in hand, Varma smashed Jofra Archer for a couple of sixes and the equation came down to 21 off the last four before eventually taking India over the line.
The Hyderabad-born cricketer revealed that head coach Gautam Gambhir advised him to play according to the situation and be flexible with his game.
“First of all, the wicket was slightly too paced, and other wickets were falling. So, actually, I was talking with Gautam sir yesterday. He said that ‘whatever happens, according to the situation you should play, you should be flexible in batting’. Whenever the team needs, if you want 10 runs in an over, you can take the charge. Or else, if the low score or 7-8 runs if you need an over, he said to take that one boundary in the over and stand at the non-striker in the end,” Tilak Varma was quoted saying in the post-match presentation.
Tilak Varma creates a record of most runs in T20Is between dismissals
The last time Tilak Varma was dismissed was in the second T20I against South Africa. He had scored 20 in that knock. Since then, his scores in T20Is read 107, 120, 19 and 72 and all of these are unbeaten knocks. These 318 runs in four innings are the most by any batter between dismissals in T20I cricket. He broke Mark Chapman’s record of 271 runs while Shreyas Iyer held the record for India with 240 runs.
It has been a wonderful start to Varma’s career in the shortest format. The left-hander has racked up 707 runs at an average of 58.91 and a strike-rate of 156.07. He has two hundreds and three fifties to his name.
