India batter Tilak Varma made his cricketing cricket as the Men in Blue faced off against South Africa in a T20 World Cup 2026 warmup game on February 4, in Navi Mumbai. India captain Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and chose to bat first.
Ishan Kishan hammered 53 in 20 balls, Abhishek Sharma made 24 in 18, while Tilak Varma smashed 45 in 19 balls as India got off to a brilliant start. Suryakumar made 30 in 16 balls, while Axar Patel made 35*, but it was Hardik Pandya’s 10-ball 30 that powered India to 240/5 in 20 overs.
In response, Ryan Rickelton made 44, Jason Smith made 35, Tristan Stubbs made 45*, and Marco Jansen made 31 as South Africa only managed 210/7, losing the game by 30 runs.
This match was significant for Tilak Varma, as he had missed the New Zealand T20I series after undergoing emergency surgery for testicular torsion. His 45-run knock included three boundaries and three sixes.
After the match, a video went viral showing dressing room banter between Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, and Arshdeep Singh. India batter Tilak Varma was visibly irritated with Arshdeep Singh when the fast bowler videotaped him without permission inside the Indian dressing room.
Following India's T20 World Cup warm-up match against South Africa, a video of the incident went viral, showing Tilak enjoying his lunch while being filmed by Arshdeep Singh. When Ishan Kishan, who was sitting next to Tilak, informed him that Arshdeep was filming him, Tilak became irritated and strongly instructed Arshdeep to cease recording him.
"Humne use itna dekha jitna dekha ja sakta tha... aur bhala in do aankhon se kitna dekha ja sakta tha?" (I looked at him as much as one could look... but how much could these two eyes possibly see?)," Arshdeep said.
"Tilak... humne use itna... nahi, Tilak ko nahi dekh sakte itna yaar! Yeh toh bura dikhta hai!" (Tilak... we looked at him so much—actually, no, we can't look at Tilak that much. He looks bad!)," he added.
The mocking continued as Ishan joked that they couldn't apologise at the time because English classes were in session, turning Tilak's attempt to stop the video into light-hearted dressing-room comedy.
"Bhai mera bina permission aise videos mat le... main promote nahi karta yeh sab." (Brother, don't take videos like this without permission... I don't promote all this.)," Tilak Varma said.
"Bhai yeh promote nahi karta hai...," Ishan said.
"Kaunsa remote bhai? Kaunsa nahi karta remote?" (Which remote, brother? Which one doesn't work?)," Arshdeep stated,
"Abhi sorry nahi bol sakte bhai, English classes chal rahi hain!" (We can't say sorry right now, English classes are in session!)," Ishan stated.
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