India hadn't won a T20I series against New Zealand before this tour. The 2007 World T20 champions had found themselves stuttering against the Black Caps in the shortest format of the game, including at Nagpur in the 2016 World T20 as well as in the three-match series in the 2019 tour.
While India beating the Black Caps in the series doesn't come as a surprise to many given the confidence which they exuded at the time of arriving in New Zealand, courtesy their dominant performances in the home season, few would've expected them to become the first side to register a 5-0 sweep in a T20I bilateral series. Especially after New Zealand threw the game away in each of the last three matches despite nearly crossing the finish line, with the third and fourth matches going into a Super Over that saw the Kiwis uphold their tradition of struggle in this aspect of the sport.
Ross Taylor and Tim Seifert struck half-centuries to give the Black Caps some hope of walking away with a consolation win at the Bay Oval in Tauranga, but Seifert's dismissal saw the Black Caps crumble from 116/3 to 133/8, the hosts eventually finishing seven runs short of the Indian total by the time the final delivery was bowled. Jasprit Bumrah played a key role in the victory with a haul of 4-1-12-3, to go with valuable contributions from Navdeep Saini and Shardul Thakur, as well as a captain's knock by Rohit Sharma earlier in the game.
While the series scoreline would be a massive confidence-booster, or demoralising for the Black Caps, the five-match contest gave both teams plenty of food for thought, from the players who have sealed their place in the XI to the experiments that didn't quite go as planned.
Here are the key takeaways from the series, taking into account performances of players from both camps:
Rahul, India's man for all reasons
KL Rahul topped the batting chart in the T20I series by a fair margin, collecting 224 runs at an average of 56. AP
Perhaps the biggest talking point of this series, as well as the last couple of bilateral engagements back home, was how Rahul stood up to the task no matter what responsibility was bestowed upon him by the team leadership. Open the innings? Check. Bat at No 5? Check. Keep the wicket? Check. Lead the team? Rahul even did that in the final T20I in stand-in captain Rohit Sharma’s absence.
Rahul finished the series the highest run-getter by a fair distance — 224 runs, 46 more than the second-highest scorer Colin Munro, at an average of 56 and a strike rate of 144.52. Additionally, the Karnataka batsman played the role of the primary attacker at the start of the innings, and carried India out of trouble with his clean-hitting all over the park if India lost an early wicket or two. Add to that his keeping skills that has been the primary reason Rishabh Pant had been reduced to carrying drinks for his teammates.
Unless either of Rahul or Rohit suffer a major slump over the course of the year, India’s opening pair looks set for now.
Kiwis take a leaf out of Saffas’ book
Hamilton, 29 January. New Zealand 173/4; need two to win from four balls with six wickets in hand.
Wellington, 31 January. New Zealand 159/3; need seven to win from six balls with seven wickets in hand.
Mount Maunganui, 2 February. New Zealand 116/3; need 48 to win from 45 balls with seven wickets in hand.
What’s common between the three aforementioned situations? A classic Kiwi brain-fade. How New Zealand threw the games away despite being just one step away from victory, and allowed the Men in Blue to seize the initiative and claim the series 5-0.
The dreaded C-word has been associated with the South Africans ever since Lance Klusener and Allan Donald failed to collect the solitary run that the Proteas needed to win the 1999 World Cup semi-final at Edgbaston, with four Damien Fleming deliveries remaining.
New Zealand’s hat-trick of chokes in this series, two of them via Super Overs within two days of each other, however will put even the Proteas to shame in this context. And it doesn't bode well for the 2015 and 2019 World Cup runners-up as far as their hopes of lifting the T20 title this November are concerned.
Iyer and Pandey solve India’s middle-order conundrum, for now
Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey have given India the safety of successfully wriggling out of a tight situation caused by a top-order collapse. AP
The middle order has been a point of concern for Team India for quite some time now, with a lot of noise being created by experts and fans over the suitable candidate for the No 4 spot since the time India were in New Zealand exactly a year ago. Shreyas Iyer has since dished out a series of consistent performances at the No 4 spot over the home season, and the 153 runs that he scored in the T20I series at an impressive average of 51, including an unbeaten 58 in the first game at the Eden Park, have bolstered his claim to that position in the white-ball formats.
Even more impressive was the manner in which Manish Pandey grabbed whatever chances came his way while batting one slot below Iyer, and successfully finished games for the team or rescued them from tight spots after a top-order collapse. India were reduced to 88/6 at the Westpac before Pandey steered them to a respectable 165/8 with an unbeaten 50.
India had primarily been viewed as a side heavily dependent on their top three to fire, and vulnerable should the opposition get the trio of Kohli, Rohit and Dhawan/Rahul early. That had been the case in the 2017 Champions Trophy final and the 2019 World Cup semi-final.
With Iyer and Pandey flourishing in New Zealand, India have reason to believe they can take some of the pressure of the top-order bats.
Southee’s run as a valuable death-overs option comes to a screeching halt
Senior pacer Tim Southee collected just three wickets across five matches at a disappointing average of 62.33, and bowled two unsuccessful Super Overs. AP
Southee has been a champion bowler for the Black Caps for more than a decade now, dishing out a number of match-winning spells for his side (who can forget the demolition of England at Wellington in 2015). He's also forged one of the best new-ball pairings of this generation with Trent Boult — whose absence in the T20I leg of the India series made Southee the de-facto head of the bowling unit.
By the time the last delivery was bowled at the Bay Oval on Sunday, Southee’s reputation had taken a serious beating, especially after getting hammered in the back-to-back Super Overs. The three wickets that he collected across five games at a disappointing average of 62.33 do his legacy no favour, and Southee will hope to bounce back strong in the forthcoming ODI engagements against the Men in Blue.
At the very least, though, captain Kane Williamson will be forced to re-think his death-bowling options after the 31-year-old consistently kept missing his lengths in the series, and focus on the likes of Scott Kuggeleijn or Hamish Bennett, both of whom certainly have been better with their variations.
Taylor very much part of NZ’s World Cup plans
Ross Taylor collected 166 runs in the series at an average of 41.50, including two fifties, to finish as the third-highest run-scorer. AP
Even though senior middle-order batsman Ross Taylor finished the series as the third-highest run-getter behind Rahul and Munro, and he remains a key member of the Black Caps side in the longer formats, there were questions surrounding his place in the New Zealand T20I team with the World Cup now just nine months away.
Taylor, who became the third male cricketer to make 100 T20 appearances in the final game of the series, might not have successfully chased totals down for the home side despite settling himself at the crease rather nicely and being able to put the opposition bowlers under pressure with sweet timing and clean striking.
However, the two fifties Rossco collected across the five games, as well as the starts that he got in the other fixtures, certainly seem to suggest that he remains a vital cog in the Black Caps middle order as one with a holding role, someone who can rotate the strike around and let the game slip out of the opposition’s hands while a guy like Tim Seifert goes for the big shots at the other end.
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