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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. 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.

Against both Zimbabwe and the 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, the Netherlands, and South Africa. Tilak finally smashed a 16-ball 44* against Zimbabwe and a 15-ball 27 against WI.