India completed a whitewash against New Zealand in the fifth T20I at Mount Manganui on Sunday. Once again, the Blackcaps crumbled under pressure as they couldn’t chase down 164. At one point they needed 58 off 56 balls with 7 wickets in hand but still, they ended up on the wrong side of the result.
The Kiwis would be really disappointed that a touring team has whitewashed them in the shortest format. Even though India was a strong side, nobody expected a 5-0 scoreline at the end of this series.
On the other hand, India will be really happy that they could seal the deal and win the dead rubbers as well. This is a World Cup year and hence these games become even more important. There were a lot of positives for India but along with that, there were a few negatives.
The Blackcaps obviously had more negatives than the positives. Many players who were supposed to perform in this series weren’t up to the mark. So, on that note, let’s have a look at three players who performed poorly in this series between New Zealand And India.
- Sanju Samson:
Initially, Sanju Samson wasn’t part of the squad for this series. Shikhar Dhawan got injured in the third ODI against Australia and as a result, the Kerala wicket-keeper batsman was called in as a replacement for the left-handed opener.
The Indian openers were fixed and so Samson didn’t get an opportunity in the first three games. Once India won the series, they were ready to experiment and hence Samson was part of the XI for the last couple of games.
There were a lot of expectations from the youngsters but as always, he flattered to deceive. In the 4th T20I he played a fabulous shot for a maximum but got out in the same over. In the next game as well, he was dismissed for 2. In two games, he managed to score only 10 runs.
A better performance from Samson and he might lose his place once Dhawan comes back from an injury.
- Shivam Dube
The Indian squad for the T20 World Cup isn’t fully ready and the Indian team tried out few players in this series. Shivam Dube was one of those players who didn’t have a fixed place in the team and after the series, his status remains the same.
Dube has been picked as a replacement for Hardik Pandya but his performances suggest that India missed the star all-rounder from Baroda. Dube got an opportunity to bat in all games but he scored only 41 runs in five innings at an average of 10.25. In the third T20I, he was promoted at No.3 but failed to do anything special.
He struggled with the ball in hand as well. In the last game, he bowled only one over but that over turned out to be the second most expensive over T20I history as he gave away 34 runs.
Dube’s performances don’t give much inspiration and he has to improve a lot if he wants to be part of this Indian T20 squad.
- Tim Southee
The biggest disappointment of this series was the stand-in skipper of New Zealand – Tim Southee. Being the senior bowler of the team, you expect some match-winning performances from the pacer but that was not the case.
Southee failed to deliver in this series as he picked up only 3 wickets in 5 games at an economy rate of 9.59. This doesn’t end here. He bowled the two super overs which didn’t go in the Kiwis favor. In the first super over, India needed 10 off 2 balls and he still failed to defend them. These numbers are not acceptable from the leader of the bowling attack.
The New Zealand management will need to rethink about Southee’s place in the T20 set up as he has failed to deliver time and again.
