Tilak, an automatic choice at No. 3, has undergone an abdominal surgery and is ruled out of the first three games, starting here on Wednesday. This has allowed Shreyas to make a comeback to the national squad for the first three games.
“Ishan will bat at No. 3 because he is a part of our T20 World Cup team and he was picked in the squad first so it’s our responsibility to give him a chance,” he said in the pre-match press conference.
“He hasn’t played for India for past one and half year and in the mean time consistently performed in domestic cricket,” added the Indian skipper.
“Since he (Ishan) has been picked for World T20, he deserves to play ahead (of Shreyas). Had it been a question of batting slots 4 or 5, it would have been a different question altogether. Unfortunately, Tilak isn’t there, so Ishan is our best bet,” he added.
The T20 World Cup starts February 7 and will be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
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When asked if he himself has any chance of batting at No. 3, where he got a lot of success, the skipper indicated that he would like to be flexible.
“I have batted at both positions for India. My stats at No. 4 are sightly better although they are good at No. 3 also. But then we are flexible with that,” he said.
“We will see and if the situation demands that we have to send a right-hander (in case right hander Sanju Samson gets out), then, I will go in, otherwise Tilak (now injured) has been doing really well at number three.”
Published on Jan 20, 2026
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