India, Jan. 23 -- India might not have Virat Kohli in T20Is anymore, but the job he owned hasn't disappeared. In World Cups, someone still has to play that calm in chaos innings - especially when chases wobble early or the middle overs get sticky.

For the T20 World Cup 2026, India's most natural structural replacement for that responsibility is Tilak Varma. Not as a copy of Kohli, but as the modern version of the same function control plus tempo.

Kohli stepped away from T20 internationals after the 2024 T20 World Cup, closing out as one of the format's defining run-getters. The important part isn't nostalgia. It is role clarity. When India were 20/2 in a chase, Kohli's presence meant the innings could be rebuilt without the run rate bec...