Ranchi: Keeping the joy of an early victory in the three-match bilateral T20I series against New Zealand, India will be backing a young Indian side to deliver in the final two matches to seal the series.
Incumbent Head Coach Rahul Dravid and Captain Rohit Sharma will be looking to give an opportunity to upcoming players warming the bench, considering the next T20 World Cup, which is less than a year away.
While India missed their regular players, including Virat Kohli, the young team did well to pull off a thriller in the Jaipur game on Wednesday with debutant Venkatesh Iyer and Rishabh Pant hammering two boundaries to take India past New Zealand's 165 runs target with two balls to spare.
Though Rohit mentioned about missing the services of the regular players, he lauded the efforts of the team saying they did exceedingly well in trying circumstances, which they never experienced before.
India were jittery after Suryakumar Yadav fell in the 17th over and could gather only 11 runs in the next 14 balls to bring the equation down to 10 off the last over. But a couple of boundaries sealed the match for India, though Daryl Mitchell snared a wicket.
India were cruising in the initial overs chasing 165 runs target after Suryakumar, who crunched 72 runs, stitched a half-century partnership with Rohit and another crucial 35 runs with Pant for second and third wicket, respectively.
The victory, which dawned the new era of Dravid-Rohit combo, ended a seven-match losing streak against New Zealand across formats, including a shameful loss in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in Super 12 stage, which almost ended the dreams of India reaching the semifinals.
New Zealand may have missed the services of regular Captain Kane Williamson, but the Tim Southee-led side held their nerve Wednesday and fought back.
The visitors, who were put in by Rohit, put up 164 for 6, riding high on a stunning 42-ball 70 from Martin Guptill. He was ably assisted by Mark Chapman, who made a half-century of his own. After Guptill-Chapman's century-stand, the visitors faltered towards the end, probably 20 short of what they were expecting.
But Southee would want to quickly shrug off the disappointment of their last two matches. Their batting is firing but the middle-order needs to step up. The visitors would be looking to work on their consistency and ironing out the few creases in the upcoming matches.
India T20I squad:
Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan, Venkatesh Iyer, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Siraj
New Zealand T20I squad:
Tim Southee, Todd Astle, Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi. (UNI)
