In the first T20I against England at Chester-le-Street, when Tilak Varma walked in, India were 88/3 in 8.2 overs with the run-rate hovering over 10.73 runs per over. By the time he headed back in the 14th over after making 13 off 13, it had reduced to 9.25 and until Shivam Dube managed to inject the impetus in the end, India had let England back in the game.
It would be too harsh to put the blame on Tilak, who at 23 is playing a similar role that KL Rahul has been pushed into in ODIs. So far in his 52 T20Is, Tilak has played at No 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and has become the fix wherever there is a hole. A career strike-rate of 142.7 and an average of 43.44 are numbers that suggest there isn’t anything alarming. If anything, for a batsman who hasn’t been able to tie down a spot for himself, he has shown signs of adapting. Yet, of late, Tilak has been finding himself in positions where he hasn’t been able to increase the tempo.
It invariably boils down to his game against spinners. Even in the IPL, whenever Tilak walked in, oppositions preferred to bring in spinners as he is known to be a slow starter against the tweakers. At Chester-le-Street, Harry Brook did the same, turning to Adil Rashid, Liam Dawson and Will Jacks. And Tilak, not the most devastating batsman against spin, pressed on the breaks like he has done throughout his career. Before the trip to the UK, Tilak has been striking at 100 in 8 innings against spinners. Compared to his overall strike-rate of 142.7, it comes down to 126.2 against tweakers, which is a huge dip.