In the fifth T20 match played in Bengaluru, India defeated Australia by 6 runs in a tough match and won the series 4-1.
Batting first, the Indian team faltered despite a fast start and with the help of Shreyas Iyer's 53 runs on 37 balls, the team scored 160 for eight wickets. Indian bowlers defended this score with all their might. Indian bowlers defended this score with all their might. In this way India won the series 4-1. The team's only defeat in the series was in the third T20 match.
Before the fifth match, Australia's Mitchell Marsh wrote on social media site X that what mistake has Travis Head made that he has to play this series. Former England captain and commentator Michael Vaughan also took this tweet forward and said that this is the most ridiculous series, no player should have played in it. Actually, Vaughan was surprised to play in this series right after the World Cup.
Even right after the World Cup, he had said on X that four days after the final, both the final playing teams will play a 5-match T20 series and the players will not even get a chance to rest. According to Vaughan, playing this series was too much and there was only greed hidden in it.
Although this series was played just after the World Cup, but the truth is that India has to play about 11 T20I matches before next year's T20 World Cup and 5 of them were played in this series. Therefore, this series becomes important for India in terms of making the World Cup team. Let's take a look at India's achievements and weaknesses exposed in this series.
The most pleasing thing for the Indian team in this series was the form of opener Rituraj Gaikwad. Gaikwad scored 223 runs in five innings at an average of 55.75, which included one century and one half-century. In the third T20I, he scored 123 runs in just 57 balls and during this he hit 7 sixes and 13 fours. He also broke the record for the highest individual score by an Indian in a T20I against Australia.
Gaikwad, who recently captained the gold medal winning Indian team in the Asian Games, has made a strong application for the role of opener in the Indian team for next year's T20 World Cup.
But while Rituraj Gaikwad showed his talent with the bat, his fellow opener Yashasvi Jaiswal could not get going despite getting many good starts. Even in the last match, he was seen hitting almost every ball in the air and in this attempt, he mistimed one of Ellis' balls and was caught out at deep square leg.
He had scored 21 runs in this innings. In the previous two innings also, he was caught out while tampering with the short ball. Only once in five innings was Yashasvi able to take advantage of his fast start and he scored 57 runs. But a total of 138 runs in 5 matches at an average of 27 does not do justice to his talent.
Apart from Gaikwad, the other batsman who has received the most honor is Rinku Singh. He looked in great form throughout the series and scored 106 runs at an average of 52.50. The rate at which he has scored has made him a strong contender for the role of finisher in the World Cup team. In the second T20I, he scored 31 unbeaten runs in just 9 balls with the help of which India could win that match.
In the fourth match, he scored 45 runs on 29 balls and played a big role in India taking a 3-1 lead in the series. Former cricketer Ashish Nehra believes that the selectors will definitely discuss his name for the World Cup team and if some senior players sit out, then it is certain that he will play. Nehra believes that there could be a tough competition between Tilak Verma, Jitesh Sharma and Rinku Singh for the role of finisher in T20Is.
However, in some matches in this series, good bowling of Mukesh Kumar or Ravi Bishnoi was seen.
But at the same time the Indian bowlers also gave away a lot of runs and in the first three matches, India spent more than 200 runs. In the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna and Avesh Khan took up the responsibility of fast bowling but their weakness was clearly visible. Krishna spent runs at an average of 13, Arshdeep at an average of 10.6 and Avesh Khan at an average of 9.08.
It was difficult to find out who among these was India's strike bowler because none of the three took more than 4 wickets in 5 innings and also spent a lot of runs.
Apart from these three, Deepak Chahar and Mukesh Kumar were also tried in the pace department. Mukesh Kumar, the least experienced of them all, appeared to be the most mature pacer and at least his spell in the last match helped India win a tough match.
In four innings he achieved 4 successes at an average of 36 and an economy of 9. In the last match played in Bengaluru, he took 3 wickets for 32 runs in 4 overs, which included the wickets of Phillip, Short and Dwarshius. Mukesh Kumar expressed in this series that on the lines of Mohammed Shami, he can play the role of an excellent swinger in the team. If he gets the right opportunities and the management continuously supports him, then Mukesh Kumar can take the place of the senior bowler of the team in the future.
In this series, except Mukesh Kumar, all the pacers were defeated but the Indian spinners kept the team afloat in every match. Ravi Bishnoi emerged as the main weapon of the team and Axar Patel also supported him well.
In this series, Bishnoi took 9 wickets at an average of 18 and equaled the record of Ravichandran Ashwin for taking the most wickets for India in a T20 series. Ashwin had made this record of 9 wickets in the series against Sri Lanka. Akshar Patel also played a big role as Bishnoi's partner. While Bishnoi would be taking wickets from one end, Patel would be keeping runs at bay at the other end.
He took 6 wickets in 4 innings at an average of 20.6 and his economy was only 6.2 runs per over, which was the best economy for any successful bowler in this series. Both of them have also strengthened their claim for the T20 World Cup.
Suyarkumar Yadav got the captaincy in this series because Rohit Sharma was rested and Hardik Pandya is still not fit to play the match. Beating Australia 4-1 in the five-match series can be considered a big achievement, especially when Australia had defeated India in the ODI World Cup just a few days ago.
But despite achieving victory, Suryakumar Yadav himself was hardly satisfied with his form. The last World Cup was also forgettable in terms of his batting and in this series too, Sky did not have the same magic for which he is famous all over the world. However, in this series he scored 144 runs at an average of 28.80 and also scored 80 runs in one match. But if we exclude that innings, it seemed as if Surya was playing under some pressure.
Indian fans know how important a player Suryakumar Yadav is for the team in T20, so their hope is that he will soon remove the cobwebs from his batting and be seen playing aggressive cricket again. After this series, the Indian team will go to South Africa to play a 3-match T20 series. 3 ODI and 2 test matches will also be played in the series. Keeping in mind the success against Australia, the Indian team management would like to almost confirm its World Cup team in South Africa.
Even in the T20I series of South Africa, players like Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Virat Kohli have been rested and the command of the team will once again be in the hands of Suryakumar Yadav.
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