Tilak Varma: All You Need to Know About India's Latest Debutant

After a dominating display in the Test and ODI series against West Indies, a young look Indian side squared off against the Caribbean side in the first T20I of the five-match series. Hardik Pandya led the side and the star all-rounder decided to hand Tilak Varma and Mukesh Kumar their T20I debut caps.

Mukesh had earlier made his Test and ODI debuts in the tour, while Varma made his India bow in the shortest format series opener. Having impressed for Mumbai Indians in IPL 2023, Tilak received his maiden India call-up and didn’t have to wait long to find his place in the middle order.

Here’s all you need to know about Tilak Varma:

Born in Hyderabad on November 8, 2022, Varma shot into the limelight after he was picked up by Mumbai Indians for a massive Rs 1.7 crore in the IPL 2022 mega auction. The youngster was already impressive in the domestic circuit and would turn out to be one of the finds of the season for MI.

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In his maiden season, the 20-year-old finished with 397 runs under his belt and was his side’s second-highest run-scorer behind Ishan Kishan.

In IPL 2023 season, Varma scored 343 runs in 11 matches, although he missed a few games he was still Mumbai Indians’ fourth-highest run-getter.

Tilak was part of the India U-19 ODI World Cup winning team in 2020. He has had a proper rags-to-riches story, but since making his IPL debut, the youngster has gone from strength to strength.

He has scored 1418 runs in 47 T20s thus far in his career at an average of 37.31. While smashed 1236 runs in 25 List A matches.

Varma comes from a middle-class family, his father is an electrician, however, he had talent from a very young age, and his coach recently credited Mumbai Indians for helping mould Tilak’s game.

The middle-order batter is a big fan of Suresh Raina, and he idolises the legendary Indian batter and often tries to follow in his footsteps, having taken advice from Raina himself.