Overview:
He will join the Indian squad on February 3 after recovering from the setback. Tilak is likely to play in India's warm-up match ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026.
Tilak Varma has been ruled out of the last two T20Is of the ongoing five-match T20I series between India and New Zealand as he hasn’t recovered from his abdominal injury. He was taken to the hospital after experiencing acute testicular pain while playing for Hyderabad in the Vijay Hazare Trophy this month. He underwent surgery and is at the BCCI Centre of Excellence for rehabilitation.
Varma has resumed training and is making progress, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has confirmed.
However, the southpaw still needs time to regain match fitness, and hence the medical staff of the Indian Cricket Board hasn’t given him a fitness certificate.
He will join the Indian squad on February 3 after recovering from the setback. Tilak is likely to play in India’s warm-up match ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, set to start from February 7. Shreyas Iyer, who was added to the team as a replacement for Tilak for the first three games, will remain with the Men in Blue for the remainder of the series.
India’s squad for last 2 T20Is vs New Zealand: 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