India Vs New Zealand: Tilak Varma Ruled Out Of Final T20Is Vs NZ, Shreyas Iyer Stays In IND Squad

India’s rising star Tilak Varma has been ruled out of the final two T20 Internationals against New Zealand as he continues his recovery from injury and works to regain full fitness.

The 23-year-old left-handed batter, widely seen as India’s dependable No. 3 in the shortest format, has spent the past few weeks rehabilitating an abdominal issue that required surgery and has yet to reach the competitive level needed for international cricket.

As a result, he will not feature in the upcoming fourth and fifth matches of the five-T20I series scheduled at Visakhapatnam and Thiruvananthapuram respectively. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) confirmed that although Tilak Varma is making “steady progress” in his rehabilitation at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, he still needs more time to return to full match fitness.

"India batter Tilak Varma has resumed physical training and is making steady progress with his rehabilitation at the BCCI Centre of Excellence. However, he will require additional time to regain full match fitness and will not be available for the final two T20Is of the ongoing five-match T20I series," secretary Devajit Saikia was quoted as saying in a media release.

"Tilak will link up with the squad in Mumbai once he has regained full match fitness on February 3, ahead of India's warm-up match for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026. The Men's Selection Committee has recommended that Shreyas Iyer will continue as Tilak Varma's replacement for the remaining matches," the release further stated.

Shreyas Iyer Retained as Replacement for Final Two T20Is

With Varma unavailable, the selection committee has retained Shreyas Iyer in the T20I squad as his replacement for the remainder of the New Zealand series.

Iyer, who was initially picked as temporary cover for Varma, will now travel with the squad to the remaining venues and provide seasoned batting depth in India’s lineup. Although he has not yet made it into the playing XI in the series, his presence offers experience and balance off the bench.

Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel (vc), Rinku Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy, Ishan Kishan (WK), Ravi Bishnoi.