It was more like Shreyas Iyer vs Sri Lanka than India against Sri Lanka in the T20I series that concluded in Dharamshala on Sunday, 27 February. The Kolkata Knight Riders captain scored his third unbeaten half century of the series to see through India's 12th straight T20I win - a record equalling feat in world cricket.
Unfazed in the chase of 147, Iyer played a composed knock at #3 of 73 off 45 balls, anchoring the innings through. Speaking after the game, Iyer stated that he feels he is best suited to bat at the number three position and he will really enjoy this moment and not think of anything about the possibilities that future holds.
While it was not a difficult chase by any stretch of the imagination, India were jolted by two quick wickets of Rohit Sharma and Sanju Samson. Sharma’s issues against 140+ bowlers came to fore yet again as Dushmantha Chameera dismissed him for the sixth time in 30 balls. Samson did not make his chance count as well, scoring just 18 runs before getting out to Chamika Karunaratne.
It is at this critical juncture that Iyer held the game. There were definitely possibilities of landslide in that situation, but Shreyas’ form was too much to handle for the visitors. Iyer - the main character of the chase found support in Deepak Hooda (21 off 16) and Ravindra Jadeja (22 off 15) to ease the work for him.
Sri Lanka bowlers have to take the onus that in back to back matches, they have had good starts removing the batters early and then have completely failed to utilise the situation. To be fair to them, they did not have the services of Wanindu Hasaranga and Maheesh Theekshana - two of their best bowlers in the middle phases of the game.
Earlier in the innings, it was once again captain Dasun Shanaka who took Lanka to a respectable scored after being left hapless even till the 15th over of the game.
Shanaka scored a stunning 74 off 38 balls and completed his half century after coming agonisingly close to it in the last game (47 off 19). Shana spoke at the presentation and put the blame straight onto the batters and stated that they have not put their hands up and the bowlers need good enough runs on board if they want to defend against a side like India.
Even though against a weaker side, there are many takeaways from the Sri Lanka series for India. The Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid-led think tank have been able to put players out of their comfort zone and make them take on situations that go against their usual template of role. For example Harshal Patel has been asked to bowl in the powerplay overs, Ravi Bishnoi has bowled classic leg spinning deliveries giving the ball a fair amount of flight while the batsmen have shuffled places throughout the series.
The byproduct of all that is that India have won their 12th T20I game in a row and have given Rohit Sharma his third straight victory in the home T20Is.
With World Cup not very far away, Sharma and co are successfully building a team that can improvise under tough circumstances and can change plans depending upon the situation of the game - something that had become quite rigid under the Kohli regime.
With the commencement of this white ball series, India will now go on a break as an international team and join back after the Indian Premier League as they take on South Africa and England back to back in their preparation of the T20 World Cup.