India had a clean sweep series (3-0) against West Indies yesterday at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
After India’s disappointing T20 series in 2021, the team has definitely pulled up their socks defeating New Zealand 3-0 in West Indies too by the same figure on Sunday.
Virat Kohli had resigned from the position of his captaincy and Ravi Shashtri’s tenure as a coach ended too. India had a very poor performance in the T20 World Cup held in Dubai last year and needed a lot of work and focus to be on the right track.
The victories in three of the games against the West Indies proved to be very promising. India now has a good squad and clear strategies. The team was criticized for not having a strong vision but now they have cleared that air. India had proper roles for the players and deserved credit for firing as a unit.
Positive Takeaways from India’s win
Rohit Sharma’s batting
When India was chasing a target of 158 in the first T20I Rohit Sharma had mustered 40 runs in just 19 balls.
In the second game, Rohit scored 19 runs in just 18 balls when Ishan Kishan had lost his wicket early but still, he looked for boundaries. he was trying hard to make things go good. In this T20I series, Rohit was being an aggressive opener and further, it could change the entire game for India.
Good Middle Order
India had a successful middle order that changed the game of this t20I series. Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh pant and Venkatesh Iyer had given hopes to the team. After a strong top-order opening, India was not in a good position since they lost three wickets continuously in the middle order but Yadav and Iyer managed to pull up the game by having a stand of 48 runs in just 28 balls.
There have been challenging positions in the middle order but Yadav, Iyer and Pant managed every time switching positions whenever required. This is surely a strong takeaway and is going to help the team further.
Spinner’s success
Ravi Bishnoi made his international debut in the series and was definitely a positive addition to the squad. He had 12 overs in the series where he gave just 17 runs taking 2 wickets and was even declared Player of the series, 1/30 and 0/29 in the three games.
Strong Bowling point
India lost the toss in the second and third games and was pushed to bat first. The batters did a fantastic job on their part but there was pressure on the bowlers. West Indies had full of hitters and it was a do or die situation for the bowlers.
Pooran and Powell together had a stand of 100 runs from just 60 balls in the second match.
When the visitors needed 29 runs in just 12 balls, Bhuvneshwar Kumar gave just four runs and took a wicket in an over. When West Indies needed 37 runs to win from 18 balls with four wickets in hand, Thakur and Patel took three wickets and gave just 19 runs in the last three overs.
India’s premium fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah wasn’t a part of the match but still, the bowlers proved themselves in this testing condition which is again a positive sign for the team.
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