West Indies vs India: Tilak Varma On Cusp Of Surpassing Virat Kohli, KL Rahul In Elite T20I List

Tilak Varma has looked highly promising in his first three T20I matches for the Indian team. So far, the youngster has registered scores of 39, 51 and 49 not out in the first three T20Is against the West Indies. India now trail 1-2 in the five-match series after beating West Indies in the third T20I in Guyana on Tuesday. With India needing to win both matches in order to clinch the series, Tilak is on the cusp of surpassing Virat Kohli in an elite T20I list.

As the focus shift towards the double-header in Lauderhill, California, Tilak could go past Kohli to become the Indian player with most runs in a five-match T20I series.

Kohli scored 231 runs in five matches during a series against England in 2021 and is fifth in the overall list, which is led by New Zealand batter Mark Chapman (290 runs)

Kohli is fourth in the list, while KL Rahul is just behind him in fifth with 224 runs against New Zealand in a five-match series.

With two matches remaining in the series, Tilak needs 93 runs to surpass Kohli in the elite list.

Tilak missed on his second T20I fifty in the third T20I as captain Hardik Pandya smashed a six with one run remaining.

After the match, Tilak said that he wanted to take calculated risks during his knock.

"I was enjoying my batting and also enjoyed watching him (Suryakumar) from the other end. The ball was too slow and was getting stuck. I talked to Gill (Shubman Gill)... Surya is batting so differently and I just could not fathom it. I wanted to hit some big shots too. I had good starts in both previous matches and could have carried for longer. So I talked to Surya that we will go deep and finish the match. The wicket was slow, I took calculated risks and played long," he said.