Is that Kohli in Tilak Varma’s clothes? Anchor-knock in IND vs PAK final draws chase-master parallels

If there was a man who stood up time and again in big matches, it was Virat Kohli. With India 10/2 in the 2025 Asia Cup final, the mind went back to the 2016 match against Pakistan, where Mohammad Amir wreaked havoc up front and made a small 84-run target look gigantic.

Among cricket aficionados, Kohli’s 49-run from 51 balls that day is considered to be one of the best knocks. Everyone knows the sort of pressure one feels during India vs Pakistan matches. Everyone can’t cope with it. But Kohli didn’t just deal with it; he thrived.

Tilak Varma does a ‘Kohli’ in IND vs PAK final

After his T20I retirement last year, everyone felt, ‘Who’ll stand up for India now?’ We may have the answer now. That batter might just be Tilak Varma. The southpaw had shown his chasing skills against England earlier in the year, but the pressure just wasn’t the same.

Tilak Varma just played a Virat Kohli–like knock against Pakistan, that too in a final. Calm, composed, and clutch under pressure,easily the best innings of his career so far!
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) September 28, 2025

In the India vs Pakistan final, the pressure was off the charts. Despite restricting Pakistan to 146, India couldn’t have got off to a worse start. After 4 overs, the score was 20/3 with Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, and Suryakumar Yadav all back in the pavilion.

In these tough times, Tilak stood tall. The emphasis wasn’t on scoring quickly but on ensuring that India doesn’t lose a wicket. He dragged the game back with Sanju Samson. When the wicketkeeper departed in the 13th over, the score was 77/4. India has crawled back into the game.

With Shivam Dube‘s exceptional cameo of 33 from 22, India now needed just 10 runs from 6 balls. Tilak was unbeaten on 60 from 50 balls. On another day, someone may have called it a bad knock, but Tilak had done what was expected of him.

And just like Kohli had done a few times, he struck a six in the final over to Haris Rauf to seal the Asia Cup final and remained unbeaten on 69 from 53 balls.