We thought 150-160 would have been a good score, maybe we fell 10 runs short: Tilak Varma

Tilak Varma has had a promising start to his international career. His maiden call-up to the Indian side for the five-match T20I series against the West Indies was his reward for consistently performing in T20 cricket at the domestic level, and especially in the Indian Premier League.

The southpaw scored a stroke-filled 22-ball 39 in the first T20I on debut, hitting two fours and three sixes. On a relatively tougher pitch in Guyana in the second T20I, the youngster showed his class again, as he registered his first half-century in international cricket before being dismissed for 51 in 41 balls.

Thanks to Tilak's composed knock, India could post a target in excess of 150 after most of the batters struggled to play freely at the challenging surface at Providence Stadium. Later, the visitors bowled well upfront but it was Nicholas Pooran's 40-ball 67 that took the game away and even a mini-collapse in the last few overs could not stop the West Indies from taking a 2-0 lead.

The 20-year-old Tilak stated that India felt 150-160 was a good score, but 10 more runs would have come in handy for them in the end. The talented youngster also praised fellow left-hander Pooran for his breathtaking knock.

"The wicket was on the slower side and two-paced. We thought 150-160 would've been a good score. Maybe we fell 10 runs short, but it was a good performance (by our batters)," Tilak was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

"Of course, credit to Pooran because he has batted really well. He put the pressure on the bowlers. We knew that if we could get one wicket, we could save the game because the wicket was on the slower side and it wasn't that easy to bat. It was a bowler's wicket. Unfortunately, it's such a funny game, it can turn around and we could've made a comeback," he added.

West Indies beat India in back-to-back T20Is for first time since 2016

Not many would have predicted that Rovman Powell and Co. would be 2-0 ahead in the five-match T20I series given they were 7-17 down in the T20I head-to-head against India before the start of the series. However, the two-time T20 World Cup champions have managed to punch above their weight, beating India in consecutive T20Is for the first time since 2016. They will hope to seal the series with another win in Guyana in the third T20I on Tuesday, August 8.