Christchurch, Oct 24 (IANS) India T20I vice-captain Tilak Varma on Saturday completed the most catches as a fielder in a single year in T20I cricket during the second match against New Zealand at the Hagley Oval here on Saturday.
Varma achieved the feat after taking two catches in the second T20I as he went past Indonesia’s Danilson Hawoe to own the record. He now has 26 catches as a fielder in 2026, one more than the Indonesian player had taken in 2025.
Coming into the second match, Tilak needed to take two catches to reach the milestone, and he achieved that with the grabs of Tim Seifert and Daryl Mitchell.
He took an easy catch of Seifert at covers first when the Kiwi opener miscued a wild mow to Arshdeep Singh. The Indian vice-captain took the second grab of Mitchell, who got a leading edge to a backtracking Tilak as Bhuvneshwar Kumar got his first wicket on his India return.
Most catches as a fielder in a calendar year in T20Is:
26 – Tilak Varma (IND) in 2026
25 – Danilson Hawoe (Indonesia) in 2025
24 – Muhammad Waseem (UAE) in 2024
21 – Sharvin Muniandy (Malaysia) in 2025
20 – Brian Masaba (Uganda) in 2023
20 – Tanzid Hasan (BAN) in 2025
Tilak has been one of the safest hands for India in 2026, and the achievement just proved that. He has taken these 26 catches in 30 innings this season with a 0.866 dismissals-per-innings rate.
India opted to bowl first against New Zealand in the second T20I in Christchurch and made two changes to their playing XI that chased a record 226 in the first game at the same venue.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who has had to warm the benches since the Asian Games, has made a return to the team and will be batting at No. 3 and not at his usual opening slot, India captain Shreyas Iyer confirmed at the toss. The other change is Prince Yadav coming in for Mayank Yadav.
–IANS
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