IND vs WI: Watch - Tilak Varma, Mukesh Kumar Receive Debut Caps From Hardik Pandya, Yuzvendra Chahal

The young batter Tilak Varma and pacer Mukesh Kumar made their T20I debut for India National Cricket Team in the first T20I of the five-match series against the West Indies National Cricket Team at the Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba, Trinidad on Thursday, August 03.

Tilak Varma was rewarded for consistent IPL performance with an India call-up for the West Indies tour. And as expected, he made it to India’s playing XI in the first match of the series itself.

Tilak Varma has been the backbone of the Mumbai Indians (MI) batting unit since making his debut in the 2022 season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). So far he has scored 740 runs in just 25 matches at an impressive average of 38.95 and a brilliant strike rate of 144.53.

Alongside Tilak, Mukesh Kumar also made his T20I debut in the match. The impressive bowling show from Mukesh in Test cricket and ODIs helped him earn a T20I debut on the tour as well. He was selected in India’s playing XI over the likes of Umran Malik and Avesh Khan.

“Be proud of yourself”- Hardik Pandya to Tilak Varma

Ahead of the first T20I match, Team India formed a huddle to hand the debut caps to Tilak and Mukesh. Hardik Pandya gave the cap to Tilak while sharing the words of wisdom and Yuzvendra Chahal gave the cap to Mukesh.

“This is what dreams are made of. Mehanat karke yahan par aaya hai. Kuch alag nahi karna hai. Same cheez yahin par karega life mein aur aage jayega (You have come here after putting in a lot of effort. Need not to do something different. Just follow the same process here and you will go places in life). Good luck and be proud of yourself,” Pandya told Tilak.

Meanwhile, Mukesh has become just the second Indian after the left-arm seamer T Natarajan to make his international debut in all three formats, i.e., T20I, ODI, and Test, on the same tour. The Tamil Nadu pacer Natarajan achieved the unique milestone during the India tour of Australia 2020/21.

Watch: Tilak Varma, Mukesh Kumar Get Debut T20I Caps

? "Be proud of yourself."

Huddle talk from captain Hardik Pandya as Tilak Varma & Mukesh Kumar make their T20I debuts ?#TeamIndia | #WIvIND | @hardikpandya7 | @yuzi_chahal | @TilakV9 pic.twitter.com/yd0G3qctG2

— BCCI (@BCCI) August 3, 2023