Follow UsIt is impossible to talk about this series without Abhishek Sharma’s mention. The left-hander has gone from being under the scanner to becoming a lock during the course of the series with his stellar showing. With 279 runs, Abhishek is head and shoulders above the others in terms of run-scoring chart in the series.
The left-hander’s impact is on an all-time high in the powerplay, scoring 145 runs and striking at 216.2, while no other batter has even scored their runs at a 200 strike rate. With 26 boundaries, Abhishek is no longer chasing the eternal sunset; he’s become India’s incumbent, sealing a place for himself.
If that wasn’t enough, the left-arm spinner also made a visible impact with the ball, picking up two wickets in the same over.
There aren’t too many sweet comebacks in Indian cricket like Varun Chakaravarthy. Until a few months ago, he wasn’t even close to the Indian setup, but what he has done across all formats of cricket is impress the selectors.
Since his comeback, no bowler (top ten teams) has picked up more T20I wickets than Varun (31). While the series against Bangladesh and South Africa were great, the mystery spinner entered a different realm in the England series, where he bagged 14 wickets in the series, averaging 9.9, more than double the wickets of the second-best, Axar Patel (6).
“This is the best I've bowled, but lot of scope to improve, there were a few [bad] balls, I should not have bowled them. It was just a matter of bowling the right ball at the right time; that's what I was working on,” Varun said in the post-match presentation.
Varun is India’s No.1 spinner, and there’s no question about it.
Shivam Dube wasn’t even in India’s plans when this series started. But as it has now come to its climax, the Mumbai all-rounder has shown why he’s always around the corner. Dube has been in India’s XI for the fourth and fifth T20I, but his impact has already been profound on the side.
Across the two games, the left-hander has smashed 83 runs at a strike rate of 176.6, only behind Abhishek’s 219.7 in the series. He’s also shown how much of a thinking cricketer he has become with his 34-ball 53, rescuing India to 181/9 from 57/4.
In the fifth T20I, he came out smashing 13-ball 30 at a strike rate of 230.76. But what would make the management more proud is how Dube had bowled and executed his plans against Phil Salt with a wicket off the first ball.
If Abhishek had a blockbuster of a series, Sanju Samson had one to forget. Everyone knows of Sanju’s talent and potential, but for that to wither away in the same pattern is excruciating. At this point, it is almost like a running joke that ‘bowl short, bowl Samson out’.
Samson has had a forgettable series, with four out of the five dismissals being short balls and one being on the back-of-a-length region. The 30-year-old could only score 51 runs in the entire series, averaging 10.2, putting his place in ‘deep jeopardy’.
Needless to say, all five of those dismissals were against a high pace (140+ kmph), which is very concerning.
Everything worked out well in India’s favour, with the exception of Suryakumar Yadav. While everyone expected the Indian skipper to come out blazing all guns, it was a very unlike effort from Surya, who had his worst-ever series in the shortest format (min 3 innings).
The right-hander could only score a total of 28 runs in the entire series, averaging 5.60, striking at 116.66. Whichever way you look at it, you will realise that these numbers are very unlike Suryakumar. You’d love to brush it aside as if it is a one-off event, but the fact that Suryakumar’s numbers are dwindling.
Surya scored only 26 runs in the previous outing against South Africa, and his average was yet again in the single digits (8.66), with a strike rate of 86.66. That’s where you’d feel that the management is (just maybe) scratching their head over his form.