Tilak Varma is one of the most complete limited-overs batters in India. On one hand, he can anchor an inning, keep the wickets from falling, and keep the scoreboard moving, while on the other, he is also one of the cleanest strikers of the ball. And with his ability to provide a few overs a decent spin bowling, Varma has been a crucial part of the Indian Cricket Team and the Mumbai Indians for some time.
Yet to turn 25, Tilak Varma still has a decade of top-class cricket ahead of him. He, along with the likes of Abhishek Sharma and Arshdeep Singh, is forming the new young core of the Indian Cricket Team. And if Rohit Sharma is to be believed, Tilak would soon become an all-format regular for India.
Tilak Varma Stats
Tilak Varma Batting Stats
| Format | Matches | Ins. | Runs | B.F. | H.S. | Avg. | S/R | N.O. | 4s | 6s | 50s | 100s | 200s |
| ODI | 04 | 04 | 68 | 119 | 52 | 22.66 | 57.14 | 01 | 06 | 01 | 01 | 00 | 00 |
| T20Is | 31 | 29 | 893 | 592 | 120* | 49.61 | 150.84 | 11 | 70 | 49 | 03 | 02 | 00 |
| IPL | 54 | 51 | 1499 | 1038 | 84* | 37.47 | 144.41 | 11 | 113 | 74 | 08 | 00 | 00 |
Tilak Varma Bowling Stats
| Format | Matches | Ins. | Balls | Wics. | Runs | B.Fig | Avg. | Econ. | S/R | 4w | 5w | 10w |
| ODI | 04 | 02 | 42 | 00 | 39 | 0/18 | – | 5.57 | – | 00 | 00 | 00 |
| T20Is | 31 | 05 | 39 | 03 | 35 | 1/1 | 11.66 | 5.38 | 13.0 | 00 | 00 | 00 |
| IPL | 54 | 04 | 22 | 00 | 28 | 0/6 | – | 7.64 | – | 00 | 00 | 00 |
Tilak Varma Fielding Stats
| Format | Matches | Catches |
| ODI | 04 | 01 |
| T20Is | 31 | 21 |
| IPL | 77 | 32 |
Tilak Varma Career Overview
Namboori Thakur Tilak Varma was born on November 8, 2002 and is part of a generation that grew up watching the Indian Cricket Team being highly competitive at a global level. Born in Hyderabad, Telangana (then Andhra Pradesh), he was born to father Namboori Nagaraju, who was an electrician, and mother Gayatri Devi, a housewife.
He was first spotted by coaches at the age of 11 while playing tennis ball cricket. Tilak, for training, used to travel about 80 kilometres daily, before his family shifted closer to his academy.
Varma played domestic cricket at the junior level while attending school in Hyderabad. Soon, at the age of 17, he made his first-class debut, making his Ranji debut for Hyderabad in the 2018-19 season on December 30, 2018. A few months later, he would also make his List A debut in the 2019-20 Vijay Hazare Trophy.
In December 2019, Tilak was picked for the India U-19 team for the 2020 U-19 World Cup. He shared that locker room alongside other future Indian Cricket Team players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravi Bishnoi, and Dhruv Jurel. While failing to win that tournament, losing to Bangladesh in the final, India found several international and domestic cricket stars, one of whom was Varma, who played six games in that competition, scoring 86 runs in three innings.
Tilak Varma, despite being very young, showed a lot of potential across formats in domestic cricket, the highlight of which was the 2021-22 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, where he scored 215 runs in seven games at an average of 35.83 and a strike rate of 147.26.
On the back of these performances, Tilak was picked by the Mumbai Indians in the 2022 IPL auction. The five-time champions picked the 19-year-old batting all-rounder for the decent price of Rs 1.70 Cr.
That season, he became a crucial part of the squad straightaway, making 97 runs in 14 matches in his debut season at an average of 36.09 and a strike rate of 131.02. He finished the season as MI’s second-highest run scorer. This year, team captain Rohit Sharma proclaimed that Tilak would soon become an all-format player for India. And while that is still to come true, this prediction cannot be called a stretch.
Then, in 2023, he had an even better season, making 343 runs in just 11 games at an average of 42.88 and an eye-watering strike rate of 164.11.
So, the next rung on an emerging player pipeline after a few solid IPL seasons was a place in the Indian Premier League. Tilak made his debut for the Men in Blue in a T20I against the West Indies on August 3, 2023, making 39 runs in his first match. In the second match of that series, Tilak scored his first international half-century.
An ODI debut would follow soon after, coming against Bangladesh in the 2023 Asia Cup on September 15 of that year.
While Tilak had his troubles keeping a place in the India T20I side, once he was pushed as a No. 3/No. 4 batter, the boy from Hyderabad found his rhythm. In November 2024, he became the second Indian to score two consecutive T20I 100s, doing so in South Africa of all places.
Now a regular member of the T20I side, Tilak is a crucial member of the Suryakumar Yadav-led team. He also has the highest average for any batter in the history of T20Is who has played at least 20 innings, with him averaging 46.61 after 29 innings and 31 games.
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