I should change gears now as my goal now is to win Afghanistan series: Tilak

The ongoing Duleep Trophy might not have panned out in his favour, but South Zone captain Tilak Varma has set a new goal for himself -- winning the upcoming three-match T20I series against Afghanistan.

East Zone has built an overall lead of 584 runs to all but clinch the domestic season opener here, but Tilak, India’s T20I vice-captain, found some solace in an immediate chance to redeem himself. “Yeah, the (personal) form has been really good. But at the same point, it’s a different format (against Afghanistan). So, I should change my gears again. I’m pretty confident about it,” Tilak said after the fourth day of the Duleep Trophy final.

“My goal now is to win the Afghanistan series. So I’ll be going with the same confidence and let’s see how it goes,” he added.

India will start their campaign against Afghanistan with the first T20I at New Delhi on September 13.

But how tough is it to shift to white-ball format after playing the red-ball game for a little over a month?

“I would not say it is that easy, but we have got a couple of days to practice. We have also changed from red ball to white ball in both domestic and international cricket. So, this is also the same thing. “I have played Ranji Trophy earlier, and from there I went to the international white-ball series. I got adjusted to it. So, yeah, I’m confident that two days of practice is enough and from there we can go for the Afghanistan series,” he noted.  The 23-year-old maintained he sees the traditional format as his ‘A Game.’