Tilak Varma sat at two very different press conferences 15 days apart and echoed the same thoughts. In Delhi a fortnight ago, he was upbeat and yet to experience his prolonged woes against spin at the World Cup, and spoke of being ready to bat anywhere the team wanted him to. He of course had batted at No.3 the most for the national side - 20 of his 43 T20I innings coming at one-drop. He began the World Cup at that spot too, but assured that he was open to any sort of positional flexibility.

After Thursday's outing in Chennai, where for the first time in this tournament he didn't look like he was trudging through knee-deep in wet sand, he offered the same words. "I always say that whatever the team needs, I'm up for it."

There was more context to it here. Rinku Singh's absence in the lead-up and subsequently in the game against Zimbabwe saw India go top-heavy by including all their opening options in Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson, with Kishan moving to No.3. That pushed everyone down a slot. But Tilak still didn't walk in at No.4. Suryakumar Yadav came out in the 11th over, and when the third wicket fell, Hardik Pandya followed.

Finally when Tilak's chance came, at four-down, it was the end of the 15th over. He started with a cut over point first ball, and his next scoring shot was a scoop over the keeper. In the 16 balls he faced, he also hit four sixes - one more than how many he'd managed in the five previous innings combined.

Tilak Varma's entry points at the T20 World Cup 2026

Opponent Team Score Over His final score 4s/6s
USA 8/1 1.2 25 (16) 3/1
Namibia 25/1 2 25 (21) 3/0
Pakistan 1/1 1 25 (24) 2/1
Netherlands 0/1 0.3 31 (27) 3/1
South Africa 0/1 0.4 1 (2) 0/0
Zimbabwe 172/4 14.5 44* (16) 3/4
Even if Rinku is available after dealing with a personal ordeal, India could consider sticking with this reworked batting formation.

Despite losing just once in their first five matches, India still had some fire-fighting to do with their batting. The collective output had dipped, and with survival on the line against Zimbabwe, they turned to a few batting adjustments. The left-only top three was broken up to blunt the early off-spin threat that Pakistan, Netherlands and South Africa had all used effectively.