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Cricket PlayersRescue team from collapse, revive stalled innings: Why Tilak Varma does India’s most thankless job
Tilak Varma's most thankless job is to become whatever India need - from resucing 20/3 in Dubai to reigniting 133/5 against pakistan in the Asian Games final.
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Tilak Varma has evolved as a batter since his breakout on the biggest stage. In recent times, he has become a more complete batter who can do the job in almost all formats of the game. However, when it comes to his task in the Indian T20I team, there is a bit of cruelty attached to it. Varma comes across as a player who likes to get settled in before he switches gears, but the Indian T20I team seldom offers him the freedom to play the kind of innings he wants; it is mostly determined by the situation he comes into.
If we look at his effort in the Asian Games 2026 gold-medal match, we can get a sense of the pressure he walked into and what he delivered. India had a tremendous start in the game after they opted to bat first on winning the toss. Abhishek Sharma’s violence propelled them to an 80-plus score in the first six overs, and even after his departure, one could say that India were in a comfortable position at 93/3 in 7.5 overs.
But after this, the Indian innings lost its menace. The momentum suddenly dropped, with Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan scoring only 41 off 42 at that stage, India risked falling well short of the 200-mark. And by the end of the match, we very well understood how crucial it would have been if Tilak Varma hadn’t delivered.
The left-hander arrived when India’s score was 128/4. Neither the match situation nor the conditions allowed him to go after the bowling from the first ball. He had to do a bit of a repair job and then deliver the finishing punch, and Varma delivered both. After Iyer’s dismissal, Tilak scored 49 runs off 19 balls at a strike rate of 258, helped India plunder 75 runs off the final 35 balls and post a target of 212 for Pakistan.
That final burst proved crucial as the game went down to the wire, and India won the competition by 19 runs.
The thankless job of Tilak Varma
Pakistan have faced the wrath of Tilak Varma even before. During the Asia Cup 2025 final, India were chasing 147. Varma came in at 10/2, and India were soon 20/3 after four overs. The required rate was climbing, he was running out of partners, and the pressure was immense given the stakes.
By the end of the 10th over in that chase, India were at 58/3 with Tilak batting on 24 off 26 deliveries. On another occasion, that strike rate would have drawn huge criticism; however, it was exactly what India needed then.
After gauging the conditions and getting settled, Tilak brought about the shift. From 24 off 26 balls, he finished with 69 off 53 balls, that is 45 runs off 27 deliveries at a strike rate of 166.66. He improved his strike rate by nearly 74 runs per 100 balls, and that too under immense pressure. Varma kept his cool, batted till the end and guided India to the title.
In today’s innings, the conditions, the demands and Varma’s own approach were different. But it comes down to the fact that there will be discussions around Abhishek’s violent start, Bumrah’s genius and even Hasan Nawaz’s fight, while Varma’s brilliance might get lost in the background.
The effort Tilak Varma put in during the Asia Cup final should have earned him praise and security for at least the next 10-15 games. However, a couple of failures in the next stretch of games immediately drew criticism and questions over his spot. Somewhere, somehow, his efforts keep getting lost in all the glamour and blitz of the Indian T20I side, but Tilak Varma seldom fails to deliver when the team needs it.
