India batter Tilak Varma, who was looking to join the Indian camp for the final two T20Is against New Zealand, faced another setback and hence has been ruled out.
The left-hander will require additional time to regain full match fitness, and he will only join the Indian team once he has fully recovered. The 23-year-old will join the hosts in Mumbai on February 3 ahead of India’s warm-up fixture for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026.
With Tilak being ruled out of the final two T20Is against the Black Caps, the All India Senior Men’s Selection Committee on Monday recommended Shreyas Iyer to continue as Tilak’s replacement. It is worth noting that the Hyderabad batter sustained an abdominal injury on the sidelines of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, which ruled him out of the first three T20Is against New Zealand.
“He underwent surgery for an abdominal issue in Rajkot on Wednesday, 7 January. He was discharged from the hospital on Thursday morning and is scheduled to fly back to Hyderabad on Friday. He is currently stable and progressing well,” the BCCI had said in an update earlier.
“Tilak will resume physical training and gradually return to skill-based activities once his symptoms have fully resolved and wound healing is satisfactory,” the update added.
Speaking of Shreyas, he is yet to get a game in the playing XI for India, as the management has been playing Ishan Kishan at No.3 since the latter is in India’s T20 World Cup squad.
Kishan set to get two more games
With Tilak out of the reckoning for the final two T20Is, both Kishan and Sanju Samson are likely to continue in the playing XI. In the first three matches, Samson failed to get going, registering scores of 10, 6 and 0 while Kishan set the stage on fire at No.3, 8, 76 and 28.
The pressure is mounting on Samson to come good, else he could probably be replaced by Kishan as an opener come the World Cup.
Speaking of the T20 World Cup, India are placed in Group A alongside Pakistan, Namibia, the Netherlands and the USA. The team captained by Suryakumar Yadav would begin the title defence on the opening day of the tournament on February 7 against the US at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
India’s updated T20I squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (VC), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ravi Bishnoi.