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Indian batter Tilak Varma, who is currently playing his maiden county cricket season for Hampshire, smashed a century on his debut against Essex at the County Ground in Chelmsford on Tuesday. Tilak, who came to bat at number four, built on his overnight score of 98 to bring up his sixth First-Class century off 239 balls.
However, he fell shortly after completing the 100 run mark, he was dismissed by South African off-spinner Simon Harmer for 100 off 241 balls, which included 11 fours and three sixes.
The Mumbai Indians (MI) batter added 133 runs for the fifth with England international Liam Dawson, who brought up his 18th First-Class ton at the other end. Tillak has smashed three tons for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy, one for India A against New Zealand A and one in the Duleep Trophy last year.
"I always say that Test cricket is my favourite game. I was waiting for this opportunity, being a world no.3 batsman in T20Is, everybody thinks I am a good T20 batter but I know, and I have been saying this for a long time, I am a good Test player - I love playing Test cricket, playing close to the body, being challenged, especially in English conditions. It was cold weather today in the morning so the ball was moving a bit and turning" Tilak Varma told media after smashing century.
Tilak made his First-Class debut in 2019. All six of Tilak’s multi-day cricket centuries have come in the last three years (since September 2022). Tilak's last appearance came in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, where he scored 343 runs in 3 innings at an average of 31.8 and a strike rate of 138.30, and struck only two fifties.
With his ton in his county debut, Tilak becomes the fourth Indian after Anjikya Rahane, Piyush Chawla and Murali Vijay to score a hundred on debut in county cricket. Chawla was the first to achieve the milestone in 2013 when he scored 112 for Somerset against Middlesex. Vijay repeated the feat in 2018 when he hit 100 off 181 balls for Essex against Nottinghamshire.
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