Indian batter Tilak Varma has revealed that the red-ball version is his favorite format. The left-hander recently returned with scores of 116*, 51* and 99 in Duleep Trophy and played a key role in getting South Zone to the final of the domestic tournament.
Varma has been an integral part of India’s T20I team and has played a key role in the success of the national team.
The southpaw has scored 1729 runs in 24 first-class matches at an impressive average of 55.77, including eight centuries and six fifties. Thus, the 23-year-old has performed consistently in the multi-day format.
“I have started my cricketing career professionally with red-ball cricket. But if you have seen me since the last few years, I have been playing white ball cricket a lot,” Tilak Varma said on Wednesday.
“But as I said, red ball has always been my favourite game, so it’s my A Game. But since the last five, six years, I have been really good with the white ball also,” he added.
The left-hander is confident that he would be able to switch from the red-ball version to the white-ball series against Afghanistan.
“Yeah, the (personal) form has been really good. But at the same point, it’s a different format (against Afghanistan). So, I should change my gears again. I’m pretty confident about it,” Tilak said on Wednesday.
“My goal now is to win the Afghanistan series. So I’ll be going with the same confidence and let’s see how it goes,” he added.
Varma admitted it is not going to be easy to switch from Duleep Trophy to the T20I series against Afghanistan.
“I would not say it is that easy, but we have got a couple of days to practise. We have also changed from red ball to white ball in both domestic and international cricket. So, this is also the same thing,” he said.
“I have played Ranji Trophy earlier, and from there I went to the international white-ball series. I got adjusted to it. So, yeah, I’m confident that two days of practise is enough and from there we can go for the Afghanistan series,” he added.
The first T20I between India and Afganistan will be played at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on 13th September.
