Tilak Varma sat at two very different press conferences 15 days apart and echoed the same thoughts. In Delhi a fortnight ago, he was upbeat and yet to experience his prolonged woes against spin at the World Cup, and spoke of being ready to bat anywhere the team wanted him to. He of course had batted at No.3 the most for the national side - 20 of his 43 T20I innings coming at one-drop. He began the World Cup at that spot too, but assured that he was open to any sort of positional flexibility.

After Thursday's outing in Chennai, where for the first time in this tournament he didn't look like he was trudging through knee-deep in wet sand, he offered the same words. "I always say that whatever the team needs, I'm up for it."

There was more context to it here. Rinku Singh's absence in the lead-up and subsequently in the game against Zimbabwe saw India go top-heavy by including all their opening options in Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson, with Kishan moving to No.3. That pushed everyone down a slot. But Tilak still didn't walk in at No.4. Suryakumar Yadav came out in the 11th over, and when the third wicket fell, Hardik Pandya followed.

Finally when Tilak's chance came, at four-down, it was the end of the 15th over. He started with a cut over point first ball, and his next scoring shot was a scoop over the keeper. In the 16 balls he faced, he also hit four sixes - one more than how many he'd managed in the five previous innings combined.

Tilak Varma's entry points at the T20 World Cup 2026

Even if Rinku is available after dealing with a personal ordeal, India could consider sticking with this reworked batting formation.

Despite losing just once in their first five matches, India still had some fire-fighting to do with their batting. The collective output had dipped, and with survival on the line against Zimbabwe, they turned to a few batting adjustments. The left-only top three was broken up to blunt the early off-spin threat that Pakistan, Netherlands and South Africa had all used effectively.

One outcome of that reshuffle, along with a few other positional calls, was that Tilak didn't have to face spin at all. It helped that Zimbabwe used only six overs of it at a venue where spinners have struggled throughout this World Cup. Kolkata, where India play the West Indies next, has been far kinder to spin.

The likes of Roston Chase, Akeal Hosein and Gudakesh Motie could still poke at Tilak's spin game, should they get an opportunity. Tilak struck spin at 139.14 in the two years following the 2024 T20 World Cup but there's been regression throughout that's now spilled into the ongoing tournament. From January 2025 to the start of the World Cup, that number went down to 118.71 - the lowest among the batters in the squad. In the World Cup, it nose-dived to 93.75 in the five matches before the one against Zimbabwe.

Thursday's breezy knock at the backend of the innings was evidence that Tilak has all the shots in his repertoire to slot in there, and not remain a misfit at the top. In fact in the IPL, he has batted more at No.5 (25 innings) than any other position (20 at No.4 and 4 at No.3).

"I've done the same role since the last four years in IPL for Mumbai Indians, and also I've done it in a few games for the Indian team. So I'm up for it. Whatever the team needs, I'm up. And according to the situation, I can adjust," Tilak said.

"As I said before, I was just waiting for one innings. I am pretty confident now that going forward I can win games for the team," he added.

Even if India find themselves in a situation where they lose four wickets earlier and have spinners still operating, they could push Shivam Dube ahead to take them down. Tilak makes up for his flaws against spin with versatility to effectively access all parts of the ground at the death. And he's got that 'one innings' in Chennai - the first step towards liberating himself from a sluggish World Cup campaign. The question now is could India do their bit, by keeping him out of reach of opposition spinners.