When he fell on Wednesday afternoon, caught and bowled by off-spinner Kounain Quraishi one agonising run short of his ninth First Class century, it was the first time in nearly two months and six competitive innings that Tilak Varma was dismissed.
But there is minimal to zero evidence that he won’t be at home in the longer formats, especially in Test cricket where, alongside Gill and Jaiswal, he will be one of the bulwarks of the Indian batting for a long time to come. Ishan Kishan, his opposite number, had sealed the destination of the title clash over the first two days. Since making 53 in the final Twenty20 International against England in Southampton on July 11, the tall left-hander’s scores, all unbeaten, read 6, 60 and 11 (in the T20Is in Harare), and match-winning efforts of 116 and 51 in the Duleep Trophy which helped South Zone make it to the final that they lost on the first innings lead to East Zone at Chepauk on Thursday. Tilak’s 99, controlled but not with the flair and panache that characterises his batting, was dictated by circumstances. Making the most of his luck at the toss, the little left-hander smacked 270, his highest first-class score, to muscle his team to 708. It’s easy to forget, given how permanent a fixture he is in the T20I setup with the vice-captaincy as an added bonus, that Tilak is still only 23, with an entire lifetime, so to say, ahead of him. The breezy advent of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi might make even 23 look ancient but let’s face it, the 15-year-old is a freak and not the yardstick against which others must be viewed and judged. Tilak’s volume of work in just three years at the highest level is impressive even if almost all his success has come in the high-risk 20-over game.
Because that humongous tally was always going to be well beyond them, all South could hope for was to muster some respectability in reply,. Tilak therefore put the scoreboard out of his mind, took everything else out of the equation and concentrated on batting time.
For someone who is a willing and able risk-taker in T20Is, whether it is at No. How India are able to fit Tilak into their red-ball scheme of things will be crucial in the months ahead. In Kishan, he has a worthy rival in the quest for a spot in the Test squad. Sai Sudharsan and Washington Sundar, the former as a top-order batter and the latter as an all-rounder with off-spin as an additional string to his bow, loom as further left-handed competitors in an already left-heavy line-up punctuated by Yashasvi Jaiswal, Devdutt Padikkal, Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja. There was a time when India struggled to find more than one settled left-hander to break up the tedium of right-handers and offer a different challenge to bowlers of all ilk.
How committed he is to the longer version is apparent from an impressive average in excess of 55 and a stellar conversion rate – he boasts eight centuries and seven fifties from 38 innings. 3 where he has brought up both his hundreds or lower down the order, where he was shunted down midway through the World Cup, he is a picture of patience, concentration and correctness when he dons the white flannels and slips effortlessly into a diametrically opposite role. Because it isn’t as if left-handers are suddenly being factory-manufactured, now, there is a distinct slant in the other direction in one of those inexplicables.
Tilak’s maiden international outing came more than three years back, in a T20I against West Indies in Tarouba in August 2023; a month and a half later, he debuted in ODIs, against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in Colombo. He has only played four further 50-over games, but is an established T20I hand with 59 appearances, averaging 44.45 at a strike-rate of 145.18. That much was evident in the triangular ‘A’ series in Dambulla in June, where he led the 50-over side to the title.
By his own admission, the endearing young man thought he’d play red-ball cricket for India before being picked for the white-ball outfits. But that’s it they say about the best laid plans of men and mice? Just how highly he is rated by the powers that be is evidenced from the fact that when India chose to move on from the Suryakumar Yadav era despite the Mumbaikar leading the team to the World Cup crown in March, Tilak was named Shreyas Iyer’s deputy. At some stage in the near future, Tilak will don the captain’s hat in potentially an interim capacity, before he ascends the hot-seat in his own right in due course. Tilak, the captain, is still a work in progress. Tilak got into needless confrontations, which didn’t make for great viewing, but clearly, he didn’t transgress any forbidden lines. He will learn and grow and become more controlled with his aggression. He will become tactically smarter and more astute, he will become better with experience as anyone does in any field. It is clear that the selectors see in him a long-term leader, hence the vice-captaincy of the T20I team, the leadership role with the South Zone outfit and an investment that they hope will bear fruit going forward. The southpaw was named the Player-of-the-Tournament in the just-concluded Duleep Trophy. | Photo Credit: K. Murali Kumar