Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: India’s designated No. 3 in T20Is, Tilak Varma, is set to reach the BCCI’s Centre of Excellence (CoE) on Tuesday, TimesofIndia.com has learnt.Tilak has been ruled out of the first three T20Is against New Zealand, starting Wednesday, after undergoing surgery in Rajkot for an abdominal issue a couple of weeks ago during the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
TimesofIndia.com also understands that India’s Asia Cup hero is not feeling any pain and is heading to the CoE for a fitness test and further assessment to get Return to Play.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!“If everything goes well, he will be fit before the fourth T20I on January 28 in Visakhapatnam. He has resumed physical training and, in a day or two, will start batting and other skill-based activities,” a source tracking developments told TimesofIndia.com.After playing the T20I series against South Africa in December, Tilak led Hyderabad in two 50-over matches at the Vijay Hazare Trophy. He scored 109 against Chandigarh on January 3 and followed it up with 34 against Bengal on January 6. It was after this match that Tilak experienced pain and was immediately advised to undergo scans.India’s ODI vice-captain and Punjab Kings skipper Shreyas Iyer has been added to the squad for the first three matches, as Tilak has not been ruled out of the entire series.
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Iyer last played a T20I in December 2023 against Australia at home and had since fallen out of India’s T20I plans. He has not featured in any T20s since last year’s IPL final, missed the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy while recovering from a spleen injury, but returned for the Vijay Hazare Trophy and also featured in the recently concluded ODI series against New Zealand.Tilak has been a key member of India’s T20I setup over the past year. He scored 567 runs in 18 innings in 2025, averaging 47.25 with a strike rate of 129.15.
