India tour to New Zealand, What we got?

 

What we got from New Zealand Tour?

 

Just after the T20 World Cup, Indian team travelled to New Zealand for a limited over series for 3 T20Is and 3 ODIs. Team India picked two different teams for two different format, where some of the senior players were rested. Hardik had given the T20Is captaincy, while Shikhar Dhawan had given the ODI captaincy.

 

The series started and ended with frustration as the complete tour was affected by rain. Only two games were possible completely across two formats. In T20 series 1^st game was a complete washout, 2^nd game was easily won by India, while the 3^rd game was ended with a tie in DLS method, which resulted in series 1-0 in favor of India.

 

In the other hand 1^st ODI was a good outing for the hosts as they chased a 300+ total quite easily and took a 1-0 lead in 3 match series. The remaining two games couldn’t end completely due to rain. Only 12 to 13 overs were possible in 2^nd game while 3^rd match was also ended in no result and this time the hosts New Zealand took the series with 1-0.

 

Talking points from the tour:-

As there were hardly any game we got to watch here in this tour, so there were very few things on which we can talk about our cricket. If we talk about T-20Is in particular, we got nothing in terms of gaining. Suryakumar Yadav continued his good form, while other batter failed to make their mark. The experiment of using Rishabh Pant as opener couldn’t paid off. Tough only one match was completed in T-20 series (2^nd game), and 3^rd game was half complete.

 

In terms of bowling, we give chances to same set of players like Bhubaneswar Kumar, Arshdeep, and Yuzi etc. Only positive factor was Mohammed Siraj’s bowling he bowled in this short series.  Other than that we can’t really see anything which we got here from T-20Is.

In ODIs it looked like these were irrelevance as, it was a 2^nd string team. But still some of the players stood up and performed up to the expectations. Washington Sundar as an all-rounder was excellent whereas Shreyas Iyer continued his dream run and made solid case for no. 4 position in main team. And Subhman Gill made his opportunity count. Other than them, captain Dhawan looked uncomfortable whereas Surya, Pant and Hooda failed in these games that they got.

 

In bowling front, we were clueless here but Umran Mallik getting much required game time and able to pick wickets, that’s the only thing we can see in positives. This outcome has no such huge impact in future as in next series it is going to be a complete changeover.

 

The Sanju Debate & Continuous backing for Pant:-

Other than the small things to watch here, most trending and talked thing here was omission of Sanju Samson from the XI and continuous backing of Rishabh Pant in the team. While the series was getting bit frustrated due to the rain, but in between the tour the social media was divided over Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson debate.

 

Samson was not picked in the 11 of T-20Is here, where Pant was promoted as the opener, it was un-understandable for the fans and cricket experts as Pant’s failure were huge in T-20Is. But the debate reached to highest level after Sanju got benched just after the 1^st ODI, where he did well. In ODIs this year he has been consistence and done well, but team dropped him just because of team combination was looked like a complete blunder.

 

If we consider a real solution to this debate is that, there is no sudden need for changing Rishabh in ODIs and adding Sanju in. But in T-20Is he definitely deserved a place in the top order. In fact someone like Ishan Kishan also deserved continuous place in XI after Rishabh’s poor run in this format. There is no doubt over his red ball game and place in 50 over format. But in 20-20 game currently he doesn’t deserve a place in XI.