The 23-year-old Tilak Varma may have been given the role of India’s vice-captain in the T20I format, but the batter hasn’t been able to escape criticism. The left-handed batter scored 122 runs from four innings in the recent series against West Indies. He was out for just seven runs in what turned out to be the last ball of the washed-out game on Saturday in Bengaluru.

There have been massive questions about his batting spot in recent times. Tilak addressed the media after the game on Saturday and shed light on this issue. Mumbai Indians star said, “It is not easy to change batting position from number three to five or six. It is a bit challenging, and I have been working on it. I have always said that I love finishing games for the country.”

“For me individually, it is easier to bat at three, but unfortunately, Ihave to bat at either five or six, because of the top-order combination.” Playing in front of his home crowd in Hyderabad, the batter’s dismissal for 43 changed the course of the game, and India went on to lose by 24 runs.

Sanju Samsonspeaking to the media after the fourth game, had said, “Till Tilak and Nitish were batting, we were in the game, but the turning point of the match was Tilak’s dismissal. We were closing the game, scoring close to 20 runs per over. Both of them were winning the pressure moments and batting well. We were in the chase.”

India have gone in with Samson at the top with Abhishek Sharma as his partner. Ishan Kishan has taken over the number three spot, while skipper Shreyas Iyer bats at four to make it a formidable batting order.

Varma chose to be upfront on India’s powerful batting order. “Kishan is batting at three and doing well there, so for me, there is no option left to bat at either five or six and do the job for the team. I am mentally prepared for the role, and if you see the last few games, I have managed to win a few games, and I am pretty confident to do well.”

Tilak Varma’s T20I career by numbers

Since his debut in 2023, the batter has played 70 T20I games for India, scoring 1841 runs with two centuries and ten fifties. The 23-year-old has an average of 43 and a strike rate of 147.

If we speak about the southpaw’s numbers at three, he has batted in 21 innings there, scoring 651 runs with two centuries and three fifties. In the middle order, Tilak has amassed 1138 runs at the number four, five, and six slots with seven fifties. He has also batted number seven on three occasions, posting 52 runs.