India captain Rohit Sharma registered another bilateral series win as the Men In Blue thrashed Australia 2-1 in the T20I series that concluded on Sunday in Hyderabad with India’s 6-wicket win.
After a 4-wicket loss in Mohali, India won by 6 wickets in Nagpur. The series-decided in Hyderabad also went down the wire, as India completed the chase of 187 with only one ball left. All three matches – all won by the chasing team – went into the last over, making up for another thrilling, closely-fought series between the two teams – both of whom are among the favourites for the T20 World Cup starting next month in Australia.
Rohit Sharma surpassed Virat Kohli as T20I captain
This was India’s 33rd T20I match win under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. Sharma now overtakes Virat Kohli’s tally of 32 T20I wins as India captain to become India’s second-most successful skipper in the shortest format at the international level. Sharma has 33 wins in 42 matches while Kohli had 32 (including two Super over wins) in 50 matches.
Standing at the top if MS Dhoni, under whose captaincy India won 42 T20Is out of the 72 he led the country in.
Most T20I wins as captain for India:
42 MS Dhoni
33 Rohit Sharma *
32 Virat Kohli
Suryakumar Yadav’s blistering knock helps India win the series 2-1
Suryakumar Yadav was India’s best batsman tonight, clobbering 69 runs off 36 balls (strike rate 191). Suryakumar, who is currently ranked 3 in ICC T20I batsman rankings, walloped 5 fours and 5 sixes in what was one of his best T20 knocks, given the opposition – the defending T20 World Cup champions – and the high-pressure game of being a series-decider.
Virat Kohli scored 63 runs off 48 balls and was involved in a big partnership of 104 runs (62 balls) with Suryakumar and 48 (32) with Hardik Pandya. Apart from SKY and Kohli, Hardik Pandya scored 25 runs off 16 balls to seal the game with one ball left.
Rohit Sharma was pleased to see different players standing up at different points in the series – it was KL Rahul and Hardik Pandya in the first T20I with the bat; Sharma himself and Dinesh Karthik in the second T20I; Suryakumar and Kohli in the third; Axar Patel, who was the Player of the Series for 8 wickets, performed brilliantly in all three matches.
“Biggest positive was different individuals stepping up and delivering. You feel good about it as a management. Margin of error in T20s is small. We took our chances; we were brave as well,” Rohit said.
Sharma downplayed the poor series the pacers had had. He stated: “[About the bowling] Sometime it doesn’t come off. There are areas to improve as well. Not easy coming back after a break against a tough team. They (Bumrah and Harshal) will take some time. Hopefully, they can get back into their groove in the next series.”
