When India A starts their Tri-series campaign against Sri Lanka A, it will be a fresh start for Tilak Varma. Not only is he the captain of the Indian team for the series, but recently he was named the vice-captain of the Indian T20I team. The tour will also be an audition of Tilak’s captaincy skills as his name was also among the candidates who were being touted to replace Suryakumar Yadav in the national T20 team as captain.

“I never dreamt of leading my country. It’s a big opportunity to learn. Leading the country is the biggest thing. I’m feeling no pressure, just added responsibility. A few days ago, I was named vice-captain, and I am pretty excited about it. When you see that VC [vice-captain] in front of your name, it means there is more maturity coming into that senior category,” he said.

“Whenever I played for India, I talked to Gautam sir a lot about captaincy, and he told me, ‘Whenever you lead India A, keep this in mind that you have to do that for India also.’ So, I observe a lot and learn a lot on the ground. I was prepared and got the opportunity at the right time,” he said.

Varma went on to speak about the influence of Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma.

“I am pretty confident as a captain. I have already done two series (as a captain) before this, and we have done well,” Tilak said.

“Coming here, I am pretty confident. I have captained in the Duleep Trophy for my team Hyderabad, so I have got the experience of captaincy. I have learnt quite a lot from Rohit bhai and Surya bhai whenever I was in the IPL franchise. I always talk about captaincy, and this is a role I have really enjoyed,” Tilak added.

Tilak said he has learnt a lot about leadership from Rohit in particular.

“We don’t talk about batting that much, but when it comes to captaincy, I learn a lot from Rohit bhai, even by watching him. I always ask him how his mindset works, how he works under pressure and how his thinking works,” Tilak said.

The Indian squad carries a heavy list of IPL stars, including Ruturaj Gaikwad, explosive openers Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya, Nishant Sindhu, and Kumar Kushagra as another keeper-batter.

Anshul Kamboj, Arshad Khan, Vipraj Nigam and Yudhvir Singh will be among India’s bowling options.

Each of the three teams will play against the two opponents twice, with the top two teams advancing to the final.

Squad: Tilak Varma (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vc), Priyansh Arya, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ayush Badoni, Nishant Sindhu, Suryansh Shedge, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Kumar Kushagra (wk), Vipraj Nigam, Yash Thakur, Yudhvir Singh, Anshul Kamboj, Arshad Khan, Anukul Roy.

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