Tilak has impressed one and all with his consistency in the ongoing T20I series against West Indies.
In his debut series, the southpaw has impressed one and all with his consistency. While the Men in Blue lost the first two T20Is, Tilak still managed to grab the headlines with his performances.
The stylish left-hander scored 39 off 22 balls in the series opener and followed it with a maiden T20I half-century (51 off 41 balls) in the second match.
Impressed with his showing in West Indies, former India opener Abhinav Mukund said that Tilak Varma is strengthening his selection claims for other formats as well.
“He played the role that was required, and it turned out to be such a good partnership. I just feel Tilak Varma didn't play it out of choice or anything. He just went about doing his business. When Suryakumar was going so hard at every single ball and every single over, he didn't necessarily need to go after anything. So that's where I really liked his maturity,” said Mukund on Jio Cinema after India’s win in the third T20I.
Chasing 160 to win, the visitors lost both their openers, Yashasvi Jaiswal (1) and Shubman Gill (6), cheaply in the third T20I. However, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma added 87 runs for the third wicket to put the visitors on the brink of victory.
While Surya got out after smashing 44-ball 83, Tilak stayed till the end alongside skipper Hardik Pandya to take India home.
“He hung around, ensured that the finish was quite good and it's great signs for Indian cricket. You have high praise from someone like Robin Uthappa. He loves him in terms of comparison to someone like Yuvraj Singh. From whatever we've seen in this series, he's really knocking down the doors of other formats,” Mukund added.
With the victory, India kept the five-match T20I series alive. The penultimate T20I will be played in Florida on Saturday (August 12).