IND vs SL: India’s tour of Sri Lanka has begun, and the first T20I went largely in favor of the Men in Blue. India has initiated their new era under Head Coach Gautam Gambhir, who has been appointed after Rahul Dravid left the position after India’s World Cup triumph.
India was sent in to bat first, with Gill and Jaiswal both having stepped up in the powerplay, as they went all-attack scoring at a great rate. India’s newly appointed skipper, Suryakumar, played his part extremely well. Gambhir stood amazed by the veteran batter’s fearless hitting and quick scoring of runs.
Though the middle order didn’t contribute much to India’s mammoth total of 213, Rishabh Pant’s 49 was a decent performance on the batting front, as Pandya, Parag, and Rinku failed to add anything significant to India’s scoreboard.
After the end of the batting innings, Gambhir’s selection of Parag over players like Shivam Dube, who was a World Cup campaigner and India’s last series’ Player of the Series, Washington Sundar, was questioned again.
Dube is a better clean hitter of the ball, who can add essential runs down the order in the death overs. Parag doesn’t seem likely to be fit in the role of a finisher; hence, he must add prowess to his bowling to replace the likes of a player like Washington.
India came in to bowl, as Lankan openers Mendis and Nissanka gave them a firm start, as Sri Lanka didn’t struggle much till the 15th over, as they were 150/3. With likely 5 overs remaining and runs to be scored at just 12 runs per over, this seemed to be an easy contest for the batting team with the insight over the shortest format of the game.
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However, the Parag experiment proved right, as Surya, as a surprise, called the all-rounder in to bowl during the end phase of the game, where he picked up three crucial wickets in order to break the backbone of the Lankan lower order.
With him given a chance to bowl, Parag proved his worth; hopefully, he will expect to find himself promoted up the order to unleash his batting brilliance, just like he did in the IPL, where he was sent to bat in at No. 4. Gambhir would also be desperate to prove why he is known for his unconventional methods and what he can bring out of the 20-year-old Riyan Parag, which can benefit Indian cricket.
