T20 World Cup: How Tilak Varma's demotion has benefitted India
What's the story
Tilak Varma is back to his best with his recent performances against West Indies and Zimbabwe at the 2026 ICC T20 World Cup. The star batter struck at 180-plus in both innings, finally moving away from his anchoring role. This innings came after a string of disappointing performances, as he was under fire for his low strike rate. However, his demotion in the batting order has changed the dynamics.
Match impact
Why Tilak moved deep into middle order
India started the T20 World Cup with Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan as openers, as well as Tilak as the No. 3 batter. Considering the left-handed top order, teams started using off-spin in the Powerplay. To counter this, Sanju Samson was introduced. This moved each batter down a slot, with Ishan being the new top-order batter. With Rinku Singh's absence, Tilak was demoted further in the middle order. This ensured the left-right combination, with Suryakumar Yadav coming in before Tilak.
Performance
How Tilak has fared so far
Against both Zimbabwe and West Indies, Tilak came at No. 5 or lower. He played with the required freedom, giving glimpses of his older self. Tilak earlier started his World Cup journey with a 16-ball 25 against the USA. He followed it up with a scratchy 25 (21) against Namibia. He didn't make much of an impact against Pakistan, Netherlands, and South Africa. Tilak finally smashed a 16-ball 44* against Zimbabwe and a 15-ball 27 against WI.
Information
Tilak at No. 3
Despite his lean patch, Tilak has fired at No. 3 in T20Is in the past. According to ESPNcricinfo, the Indian batter has scored 649 runs from 20 matches at an average of 46.35 at this position. His strike rate reads 151.99. Notably, both his T20I tons have come at No. 3.