&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "From IPL to English County! India batting star signs short-term deal with Hampshire")
For the second time in a week, a star Indian T20I cricketer has signed a deal with a County Championship club in England. After IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain Ruturaj Gaikwad signed up for Yorkshire for the second half of the summer, Mumbai Indians batter Tilak Varma is the latest to join hands with a County side, Hampshire, but on a short-term basis.
The left-handed batter will play four County matches for Hampshire in June and July.
Tilak has featured for India in only white-ball matches to date, four ODIs and 25 T20Is. He has hit two centuries (in the shortest format) and four fifties overall, while his IPL exploits are not new to everyone. He has played 18 first-class games, having scored five hundreds, including one for India-A against New Zealand-A, while averaging over 50 in the format.
His inclusion, however, would help and press his chances of impressing the selectors with his red-ball game, further putting him in the conversation for a potential Test cricket debut sooner.
Meanwhile, the County side, which got off to a mixed start to the season and is placed seventh on the table, would welcome Tilak with open arms ahead of their next game against Essex starting June 22. His inclusion would bolster its batting line-up, which struggled a bit since James Vince's departure.
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Hampshire, however, had hoped to rope in South Africa batting prodigy Dewald Brevis for their two Championship fixtures; he instead was picked for the away Zimbabwe Tests, making room for another overseas player to fill, with Varma getting his chance. But the left-handed batter will not feature in England’s T20 tournament – the Vitality T20 Blast, since the BCCI doesn’t allow Indian cricketers and those contracted to play in any other franchise-based T20 League outside of the IPL.
Besides him, ace Indian spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who played the IPL 2025 final for Punjab Kings, is also due to return to play for Northamptonshire later this month.
