Tilak Varma continues to rise up the ranks

If Tilak Varma was a bundle of nerves on his T20I debut for India, he did an excellent job of hiding it. 

Even before he could strap his pads on and walk out to bat in India's eventually unsuccessful run chase of 150 against West Indies in Tarouba, Trinidad, on Thursday, Varma had made an impact with two catches in the outfield, the first of which required him to run quite a few metres to his left from deep midwicket before pulling out the dive to get rid of Johnson Charles.

By the time his turn to bat arrived, India were 28/2 with the required run rate climbing ever so steadily. If his fledgling IPL career with Mumbai Indians has told us anything, it's that the 20-year-old from Hyderabad doesn't take long to get going. 

Varma offered the West Indian bowlers merely the courtesy of defending his first ball before opening his account in international cricket with consecutive sixes. 

When Alzarri Joseph offered a length ball on off-stump, the left-handed batter put his strong wrists to use to flick the ball beyond the deep square-leg boundary. 

Joseph went shorter in length as a follow-up, but Varma had no hesitation in going back and pulling the ball towards the same region for another six. There may have been a quiet nod of acknowledgement at the other end from Suryakumar Yadav, who himself got off the mark in international cricket with a six off his very first ball.

More evidence of Varma's promise was to follow. Two overs later, he went down on one knee and lofted a full delivery by Romario Shepherd wide of long-off for six with regal elegance. Off the very next ball, he opened his bat face to guide a wide delivery for four in the gap between short third man and backward point. Shepherd eventually had his revenge in the 11th over when Varma pulled a back-of-a-length off-cutter to Shimron Hetmyer at deep backward square leg.

That the dismissal of a debutant may have proved to be the turning point of the run chase is indicative of Varma's contribution. On a slow pitch conducive to spin where shot-making wasn't straightforward, Varma was able to tide over the conditions to produce an enterprising effort even as the others struggled. While his 22-ball 39 meant he was striking at 177.27, nobody else in India's top six had a strike rate exceeding 100.

None of this should be hugely surprising for those who have tracked Varma's rise over the past couple of years. A part of the India junior team that lost to Bangladesh in the final of the 2020 U-19 World Cup in South Africa, Varma's IPL breakthrough didn't come as swiftly as it did for say Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravi Bishnoi and Kartik Tyagi. But once Mumbai Indians invested ₹1.7 crore in Varma's services ahead of the 2022 IPL auction after monitoring his domestic performances for Hyderabad, there's been no looking back. In his debut campaign last year, Varma made 397 runs in 14 matches at an average of 36.09 and a strike rate of 131.02. He found a higher gear this year, with 343 runs in 11 matches at 42.88 while striking at 164.11 suggesting that Varma's career trajectory is heading in the right direction.

From former India stalwarts Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri to current stars Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja, praise has poured in from all directions for Varma. During this year's IPL, Sharma said of his Mumbai Indians teammate: "We watched Tilak last season. We all know what he can do with the bat, and he has been brilliant this year. I love his approach. He is not afraid, he doesn't play the bowler, he plays the ball. For someone of his age, coming out and playing the way he is, he's got a long way to go, and we will see him play for some different teams."

Jadeja, meanwhile, posted a picture alongside Varma on Instagram earlier this year with a caption that read, "Chilling with future of India."

While Varma will look to build on his encouraging start in the remainder of this five-match series, the bigger targets will be the Asian Games in September-October and the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean next year. If he can continue playing with the fearlessness he showed on Thursday, expect Varma to play a big part in those events.