Big news: Body blow for India as star batter ruled out of first 3 T20Is vs New Zealand

India batter Tilak Varma has been ruled out for the first three T20Is of the upcoming series against New Zealand. The 23-year-old had undergone a successful surgery after being diagnosed with Testicular Torsion. He wasn't able to participate in Hyderabad's Vijay Hazare Trophy (VHT) fixture against Jammu & Kashmir on Thursday and will remain on the sidelines for some time.

Sports Tak has learned that Tilak has been doing well after being discharged from the hospital earlier in the morning and will be flying back to Hyderabad very soon. He will resume physical training and will gradually return to skill work once his symptoms resolve and wound healing is satisfactory.

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Tilak has not only been ruled out of the first three T20Is against New Zealand, but his participation in the remaining two matches will depend on the progress that he shows. His participation in the 2026 T220 World Cup is also under doubt and it remains to be seen if he will be able to recover on time.

Tilak's superb T20I form

The left-hand batter has been a key figure for India for quite some time now when it comes to T20Is. Not only has he firmly cemented his place in the set-up, but had also performed brilliantly in the Men in Blue's previous T20I assignment that was against South Africa. He had registed two fifty-plus scores in the five-match series and was one of the side's  top performers with the bat. Tilak had also scored a superb hundred for Hyderabad in their VHT fixture against Chandigarh.

India will miss him for the first three games against New Zealand and that is nothing short of a massive blow for them. With Tilak out, Shubman Gill can end up making a comeback to the team after a lack of runs had led to him being dropped from India's squad for the 2026 T20 World Cup. 

India to face NZ in ODI series as well

Meanwhile, India will be facing New Zealand in a three-match ODI series, starting from January 11. Both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will be in action once again after being named in the Men in Blue's squad for the assignment. 

India's squad for New Zealand ODIs: Shubman Gill (C), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul (WK), Shreyas Iyer (VC)*, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd Siraj, Harshit Rana, Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav, Rishabh Pant (WK), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Arshdeep Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal