"So happy and excited for you" - Suryakumar Yadav congratulates Tilak Varma after maiden India call-up

Suryakumar Yadav congratulated his Mumbai Indians (MI) teammate Tilak Varma after the latter earned his maiden India call-up on Wednesday, July 5.

Varma was named in the Men in Blue's 15-member squad for the upcoming five-match T20I series in West Indies. Suryakumar, who is also part of India's ODI squad for the tour, was named the vice-captain for the upcoming T20I fixtures in the Caribbean.

Reacting to Varma's inclusion in India's T20I team, Suryakumar wrote on Twitter:

"Congratulations on your maiden T20I call up @TilakV9. So happy and excited for you."

Several senior members, including Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja won't feature in the five-match T20I series against West Indies. All-rounder Hardik Pandya will continue to lead the side in the shortest format.

The opening encounter of the series is scheduled to be played at the Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba, Trinidad, on August 3.

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Tilak Varma dazzled viewers with his batting exploits in IPL 2023

Both Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma delivered impressive performances with the bat for MI in this year's Indian Premier League (IPL 2023).

Varma emerged as one of the most exciting young batters in the tournament, mustering 343 runs from 11 outings at an average of 42.87. It is worth mentioning that the southpaw had to sit out of five league matches due to an injury.

He returned to Mumbai's playing XI for the playoff fixtures, scoring 26 and 43 in the Eliminator and Qualifier 2, respectively. MI's campaign ended with a heartbreaking 62-run loss to Gujarat Titans (GT) in Qualifier 2 at Ahmedabad.

Suryakumar was the leading run-getter for the Mumbai-based side this season, aggregating 605 runs from 16 outings at an average of 43.21.

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India's squad for West Indies T20Is

Ishan Kishan (wk), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (VC), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya (C), Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.