Vinith❤Tammy

Tilak Varma turns 24 today, so I went back through his T20I career. His numbers are a lot better than the conversation around him suggests and for me it’s more about the situations he scores them in that make him special. Since 2023, 32 batters have made a 1000+ T20I runs against Test-playing nations. Tilak averages more than every single one of them, 43.11 scoring at 146. Rizwan is the next name on that list at 44.88, but he scores at 117. Now the aspect which explains his role in the India team: He is almost never walking into a set platform. He walks into a problematic situation more often, which is his median entry point and the goal is to be there till the end. And boy he usually is. He’s unbeaten in 26 of those 71 innings, and eight of his thirteen fifty-plus scores were not outs. Once he gets to 20 balls he averages 80, and he’s turned 29 of those into thirteen scores of 50+. He’s had a run of eight straight innings of 20+. For a number four in a side that loses early wickets as often as India do, that’s something which explains his role. What makes him different is how he does it without taking the risks everyone else in that order takes. His control percentage is 77.3, which is the highest of any batter in world T20Is striking at 145 or better. Everybody who middles it more often than him scores slower. Everybody who scores faster ends up giving more chances. Every regular in the Indian team strikes at 144 or more. It’s the most aggressive batting line-up India has ever picked. Someone has to absorb the collapses that come with batting like that, and the fact that the person doing it is also scoring at 146 is why this process works so well. People criticize him for his occasional negative innings and term him as a blocker. At the death he strikes at 187.8 and averages 55.4. Against Australia, England, South Africa, Pakistan and New Zealand he averages 47.57. He’s at his best when the situation is tough. 24 years old, two hundreds, eleven fifties, 1940 runs. Happy birthday Tilak. India’s lucky to have found him.