Former Indian chief selector MSK Prasad has backed Tilak Varma to be a white ball regular for the team across formats going forward. Varma has already made an impressive start to his T20I career as he has returned with scores of 39, 51, and 49* in the three matches against the West Indies.

There are reports suggesting that KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer are in race against time to be fit for the ODI showpiece and Prasad feels throwing Varma into the ODI mix is not a bad idea.

Furthermore, Varma has scored 1236 runs in 25 List A matches at an impressive average of 56.18 with the help of five centuries and as many fifties while playing for Hyderabad.

MSK Prasad told PTI: “Look at his List A record for Hyderabad. He has played 25 List-A games and has an average of 55 plus. Five hundreds and five half-centuries. It means at least 50 percent times he is converting fifties into hundreds. A strike rate of 100 plus.”

“I think it won’t be a bad idea provided Shreyas (Iyer) can’t make it. Only then you can think of Varma. But I am sure he will be a white ball regular for India across formats going forward,” the former keeper-batter added.

On the other hand, veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin reckons the exciting part about Tilak Varma is the fact he is a left-hander and thus can provide variety in the batting order.

Ashwin said on his YouTube Channel, “This is neck-and-neck with respect to the World Cup. So, will they consider Tilak Varma an option if we don’t have enough backups? Because Sanju Samson has performed really well in ODIs. But the exciting part about Tilak Varma is that he is a left-hander and Team India is lacking left-handers. Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) is the only left-handed batter in the top 7.”

Varma has scored 740 runs in 25 IPL matches for Mumbai Indians at an average of 38.95 and a blistering strike rate of 144.53 while playing under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma.