Bharath Ramaraj, Dubai
‘India is the No.1 T20I side going around.’ You don’t need the International Cricket Council’s rankings to gauge that the statement is true. But despite India being a formidable force, the think-tank is still grappling with certain problems. One of them is the middle-order jigsaw puzzle. At RevSportz, we have already touched upon Jitesh Sharma not being picked at No. 5 and Sanju Samson playing at the wrong slot. And that leaves us with the third player in the middle-order troika – Tilak Varma.
It isn’t like Tilak has been a flop show in the ongoing Asia Cup. While facing the older and softer ball, he still averages a decent 31.66. Also, when you consider the prevailing conditions in the United Arab Emirates, his strike-rate of 126.66 isn’t bad. Tilak, though, still has an issue to rectify – the art of scoring runs against spin bowling in the middle overs.
This year, his strike-rate has plummeted to a lowly 112.9 against spin in T20Is. In the 2025 IPL, on better wickets for batting, his strike-rate against spin was still on the lower side – 125. Interestingly, it was an impressive 156 in last year’s IPL. So, what could be his issue while facing the twewakers? Maybe he doesn’t pick the length early enough. The outcome is that he doesn’t really use the depth of the crease in order to manoeuvre the ball into the gaps.
Despite Tilak’s flaws, he is a guaranteed starter in the current T20I side. To be fair to him, he has repaid the faith shown in him as he averages over 50 at the No. 3 slot in T20Is. But if he wants to take his game to an elevated plane, then he needs to work on his spin game. If his ultimate goal is to become an established member of the Indian side in the longer formats of the game, that’s non-negotiable.
First things first. The short-term goal would be to negate Pakistan’s spinners in the middle overs and contribute to an Indian Asia Cup triumph on Sunday.