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By:

Waleed Hussain

4 March 2025 at 8:04:30 pm

Tilak Varma: The Calm in the Chaos

There are moments in T20 cricket when a match appears to slip beyond reach. For India, one of the most encouraging developments in recent years has been the emergence of a young left-hander who seems increasingly comfortable in precisely these circumstances. His name is Tilak Varma. Varma offered another compelling demonstration of his value, striking an unbeaten 51 off 25 balls against New Zealand in Christchurch. India had slumped to 112 for six while chasing 181, with Mitchell Santner...

Tilak Varma: The Calm in the Chaos

There are moments in T20 cricket when a match appears to slip beyond reach. For India, one of the most encouraging developments in recent years has been the emergence of a young left-hander who seems increasingly comfortable in precisely these circumstances. His name is Tilak Varma. Varma offered another compelling demonstration of his value, striking an unbeaten 51 off 25 balls against New Zealand in Christchurch. India had slumped to 112 for six while chasing 181, with Mitchell Santner threatening to derail the innings. Varma responded with a match-turning partnership alongside Nitish Kumar Reddy, adding 69 runs from just 30 balls to steer India to a four-wicket victory. His late assault transformed a precarious chase into another memorable Indian win. Varma’s greatest contribution to the Indian T20 side may lie in his ability to bring order to chaos. India have never lacked explosive batters. The challenge, however, is ensuring that aggression does not become recklessness and that a promising start does not collapse under pressure. Varma offers a different kind of assurance. He can attack without losing sight of the situation, rebuild after early wickets and accelerate when the game demands it. His left-handed presence also gives India a valuable tactical dimension, disrupting bowling plans and forcing captains to reconsider their match-ups. The Christchurch innings illustrated these qualities perfectly. Such performances are what distinguish a talented batter from a genuine match-winner. The foundations of Varma’s reputation were laid in South Africa in November 2024. Given the opportunity to bat at No. 3, he responded with an unbeaten 107 off 56 balls at Centurion, helping India post 219 for six and secure a crucial victory. He followed that performance with another century, scoring 120 in the next match, establishing himself as a batter capable of dominating quality international bowling. They demonstrated that Varma could assume responsibility at a pivotal position rather than remain confined to the role of a supporting batter. His willingness to take ownership of the No. 3 position was particularly significant for a team continually searching for the right balance between stability and aggression. In the 2025 Asia Cup final against Pakistan, Varma’s unbeaten 69 guided India through a tense chase after an uncertain start. Modern T20 cricket increasingly demands players who can fulfil multiple roles within a single innings. Varma has demonstrated the ingredients required for that responsibility. His left-handed batting adds variety to India’s predominantly right-handed combinations, while his ability to play spin and pace makes him a flexible option across different conditions. The long-term implications are substantial. India need not depend exclusively on one or two established superstars to rescue difficult matches. A reliable Varma in the middle order could give the team greater freedom to attack early, knowing that someone capable of rebuilding remains available when wickets fall. There is, of course, a distinction between potential and sustained greatness. International cricket will test Varma against opponents who study his strengths, exploit his weaknesses and devise plans specifically to contain him. Consistency, fitness, decision-making under pressure and the ability to recover from prolonged lean patches will determine whether he becomes a dependable international fixture or one of India’s defining T20 batters. The challenge is to nurture his development without burdening him with unrealistic expectations. Every promising young cricketer does not need to be labelled the next superstar. Varma deserves the opportunity to develop his own identity. There is something particularly inspiring about Varma’s journey. His rise from Hyderabad, supported during his formative years by a coach who helped him overcome financial constraints, reflects the role that opportunity, sacrifice and perseverance can play in sporting success. But inspiration alone does not win international matches. Performance does. And Varma is increasingly providing the evidence to support the belief surrounding him. For Indian cricket, Tilak Varma represents something more enduring than a succession of memorable innings: the possibility of a middle order built around intelligent aggression and emotional resilience. The next chapter of his career will determine just how far that promise carries him. Yet the signs are encouraging. India may have discovered a batter who can do more than entertain, more than accumulate runs and more than rescue the occasional match. They may have found a cricketer capable of becoming one of the defining pillars of their T20 future. (The writer is a senior journalist based in Mumbai. Views personal.)

Strategic Self-Harm

Correspondent
Dec 18, 2025
2 min read

India’s primary opposition party, the Congress, has often struggled to look like a government-in-waiting. But rarely has it sounded so eager to undermine the very idea of the state. Former Maharashtra Chief Minister and veteran Congressman Prithviraj Chavan’s remarks on ‘Operation Sindoor’ - India’s military response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack - do precisely that. They are not just ill-judged but are a case study in strategic self-harm, delivered with the assurance of a man who should have known better.


Chavan, long regarded as one of the Congress most erudite faces, told a press conference in Pune that India was “completely defeated” on the very first day of the operation. The air force, he claimed, was “fully grounded” for fear that Pakistani defences would shoot down Indian aircraft. He went further, questioning whether India even needs a standing army of 12 lakh soldiers in an age supposedly dominated by missiles and aircraft.


Such claims are not just implausible but reckless. India has officially refuted suggestions that its fighter jets were shot down. No serious military analyst believes the Indian air force was paralysed by fear given the mauling that we delivered to Pakistan, which rattled even the United States.


That this provocation echoes the talking points of Rahul Gandhi is no coincidence. The Congress leader has made a habit of questioning the competence of India’s armed forces and the credibility of military operations. Whenever confronted with a national-security moment that rallies public opinion behind the government, the Congress seems to choose scepticism bordering on self-sabotage.


The timing makes the performance even more puzzling. Maharashtra is heading towards crucial civic elections, including the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The Congress is already the weakest link in a fragile MVA.


In 2012, before the start of the civic polls elections under a Congress-led state government, Chavan had made similarly dramatic statements that handed political ammunition to the then undivided Shiv Sena and the BJP. The result was a rout for the Congress.


What explains this compulsion? One answer is weakness. Parties confident of their ground game do not need to manufacture outrage. They do not gamble with national-security narratives to stay relevant. Another is a deeper malaise within the Congress is an inability to distinguish between legitimate scrutiny of the government and gratuitous denigration of state institutions.


Chavan’s suggestion that future wars will be fought without ground forces betrays a startling naïveté for someone who once occupied the CM’s office. Modern warfare is indeed evolving. But no serious doctrine - Indian, American or Chinese - has dispensed with the centrality of ground forces, especially in contested, mountainous terrain like Kashmir.


More troubling is the signal such statements send beyond India’s borders. Pakistan does not need to invent propaganda when Indian opposition leaders are willing to supply it. Nor do India’s soldiers, deployed in difficult conditions, need to hear their relevance questioned by a former head of government.

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