Tilak Varma

Nambori Thakur Tilak Varma (born 8 November 2002) is an Indian professional cricketer who plays as a left-handed batsman and part-time off spin bowler. He made his International debut for India on 3 August 2023 in a T20I match against the West Indies. He plays for Hyderabad in domestic cricket and Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League(IPL). He was a part of the Indian squad which won the 2023 Asia Cup.

Early life
Tilak Varma was born on 8 November 2002 into a Telugu Hindu family in Hyderabad. His father Namboori Nagaraju worked as an electrician, and his mother Gayatri Devi is a housewife. He has an elder brother, Tarun Varma.

Tilak Varma developed an early interest in cricket and was spotted playing tennis ball cricket by coach Salim Bayash at the age of 11. Bayash took him under his wing and trained him at the Legala Cricket Academy, Lingampally. Bayash would ferry Varma to his academy and back home on his scooter, a journey of more than 40 km each way, until Varma's family relocated closer to the academy.

Varma obtained his early education at Crescent Model English School and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Public School, Hyderabad. He completed his secondary education in Lepakshi Junior College, Hyderabad, and, at present, is pursuing a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Andhra University.

Domestic career
He made his first-class debut for Hyderabad in the 2018–19 Ranji Trophy on 30 December 2018. In the tournament, he scored 215 runs in seven matches at a strike rate of 147.26. He made his Twenty20 debut for Hyderabad in the 2018–19 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on 28 February 2019.

He made his List A debut on 28 September 2019, for Hyderabad in the 2019–20 Vijay Hazare Trophy. During the tournament, he scored 180 runs in 5 games and also took 4 wickets.

In December 2019, he was named in India's squad for the 2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. He played 6 games in the competition and managed to score only 86 runs.

In the 2021-22 Vijay Hazare Trophy, he scored 180 runs in five games and took four wickets.

Indian Premier League
In February 2022, he was bought by the Mumbai Indians in the auction for the 2022 Indian Premier League tournament. The base price was Rs. 20 lakh and he was bought by Mumbai Indians at Rs. 1.7 crore. In the second match of the league, he scored a 33-ball-61 against Rajasthan Royals at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

In April 2023, he scored an 84 off 46 balls against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their first match of 2023 Indian Premier League. In the playoff match against Gujarat Titans, he scored 43 runs off just 14 balls.

International career
In July 2023, he got his maiden call-up for Indian cricket team for the T20I series on the tour of West Indies. He made his T20I debut on 3 August 2023 in the first match of the series. He top-scored for India with 39 off just 22 deliveries and he managed to take 2 catches in the same match.

On 6 August 2023, he made the first fifty of his international career in the second T20 match played against the West Indies. He became the second youngest Indian to score 50 in Men's T20I after Rohit Sharma. Also, he was the highest run scorer for the team in that tour.

He has also been named in the Indian squads for the three-match T20I tour of Ireland and the 2022 Asian Games to be held in Hangzhou, China.

He made his ODI debut on 15 September 2023 against Bangladesh in 2023 Asia Cup.