Xtra Time Web Desk: Rohit Sharma led Team India will look to seal the T20I series against New Zealand when the two teams meet at the JSCA stadium in Ranchi on Friday. The Men in Blue displayed a dominating performance in the first T20I at Jaipur, winning the match comfortably by five wickets. It also ended ‘Men in Blue’ seven-match losing streak across formats.
Suryakumar Yadav was the star performer for India, making full use of the opportunity at number three with a match-winning 62 off 42 balls. It was his effort with the bat the scratchy batting of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant went unnoticed.
Shreyas, who is playing a match for India after a long break, did look rusty as he found it difficult to middle the ball. He also didn’t look too keen on farming the strike with singles and twos when big shots weren’t coming off. He scored 5 off 8 balls before being dismissed in the penultimate over by Tim Southee, but thanks to India’s healthy run-rate the chase did not go out of their hands.
The biggest positive for India was Suryakumar’s batting alongside the bowling performances of experienced bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ravichandran Ashwin, who were brilliant in terms hitting the right areas while some of the inexperienced bowlers leaked runs at the other end.
31-year-old Bhuvneshwar was dropped after an indifferent performance with the ball against Pakistan in the T20 World Cup. It was heartening to see him deliver in style and exploited the swing on offer at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium before cleaning up Daryl Mitchell with a perfect inswinger to return with 2/24 which was second to Ashwin’s 2/23. India were also brilliant at the death and conceded just 41 runs taking three wickets which denied the visitors a good 15-20 runs.
Having already committed to giving his players a long rope, it is unlikely that Rohit will disturb the batting line-up just after one game.
Although in bowling, there could be a forced change as Indian pacer Mohammad Siraj has suffered a split left webbing after being hit by Mitchell Santner in the final over of the New Zealand innings. If Siraj is not available for selection then either Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel will be included in the playing XI.