Jaipur, First Published Nov 18, 2021, 1:23 PM IST
Jaipur: It was Rohit Sharma’s first T20I match against New Zealand in Jaipur after captaining Team India full time. Rohit made his full-time captaincy debut with a five-wicket win in the match. However, former captain Aakash Chopra said that Rohit had made an extraordinary captaincy fall in the match.
‘The Indian team said they needed a pace all-rounder. So Venkatesh dropped Iyer to number six. But he was not given a chance to bowl. This is an extraordinary fall on the part of Rohit Sharma. In general, Rohit’s captaincy is excellent. But the decision not to give the ball to Venkatesh confused me, ”Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel. Chopra added that Iyer could have been given one or two overs when Deepak Chahar and Mohammad Siraj conceded runs.
Venkatesh Iyer, who was discovered last IPL season, was given a chance by Team India to make his T20I debut at number six but could not capitalize. With 10 runs needed to win the last over, the batsman reached the crease and hit a boundary off the first ball with a midwicket. But the next ball came out during an attempt for a sweep. In bowling, Iyer did not get a chance when skipper Rohit Sharma completed 20 overs with five wickets.
Rohit starts with victory, Dravid too
In the first T20, Team India defeated New Zealand by five wickets. India overtook the Kiwis by 164 runs with two balls to spare. This gave India a 1-0 lead in the three – match series. The second match will be played in Ranchi on Friday. Not only was Rohit Sharma the full-time captain of the T20I, but it was also Rahul Dravid’s first match as the full – time coach of the senior team in Jaipur.
Suryakumar Yadav (62 off 40 balls) and skipper Rohit Sharma (48 off 36 balls) and Rishabh (17 off 17 balls) helped India win the toss and elect to bat. KL Rahul (15), Shreyas Iyer (5) and Venkatesh Iyer (4) were out.
Batting first, New Zealand scored 164 for six in 20 overs. Martin Gupta (70 off 42 balls) and Chapman (63 off 50 balls) were the top scorers for the Kiwis. For India, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Deepak Chahar and Mohammad Siraj took two wickets each. Suryakumar Yadav is the man of the match.
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Last Updated Nov 18, 2021, 1:28 PM IST
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