India’s 3-0 series victory against New Zealand gave them a chance to test out a number fringe players who hadn’t, or had rarely, featured in the World Cup. We reviewed how a number of them performed.
Ishan Kishan
According to many, Ishan Kishan is already well deserving of a regular spot in India’s T20 XI. A phenomenal 2020 IPL season was backed up by a less stellar 2021 showing, though he did wrap up his tournament by thumping 84 off 32 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Kishan only played one game at the World Cup (4 off 8 against New Zealand) and only got one chance in this series, scoring a respectable 29 off 21 balls to take his overall career record for India to five games and an average of 28.25 with a strike-rate of 134.5.
Venkatesh Iyer
Arguably the breakout player of the 2021 IPL, Venkatesh Iyer has now risen to full international colours. Whilst not producing an out-and-out show stopping performance in any of the three games of the series, Iyer continued to display his versatility with a strong showing in the final game, scoring 20 off 15 balls and claiming 1-12 with the ball of his three overs. Used at the top of the order by KKR, but seen by India as a middle-order batter who can help out with the ball, it will be interesting to see what role Iyer adopts when we’ll next seem him in the IPL.
Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer is by far the most experienced player on this list, with 32 T20i appearances to his name. But having not featured at all in the World Cup, he would have seen this series against New Zealand as a chance to reassert himself as one of India’s first-choice batters. Unfortunately for him he could only muster scores of 5 and 25 in his two chances at the crease.
Harshal Patel
Going into this year’s IPL, Patel was 30 years old and had played in eight IPL seasons. What more could there possibly be to learn about the seamer from Gujurat? As it turned out, lots. 32 wickets across the campaign (he had only taken 16 in the previous five seasons) saw him tie DJ Bravo’s record for most wickets in an IPL season and earned him an international call-up for the New Zealand series. And for now, the fairytale continues. Two matches saw him take 2-25 and 2-26 respectively as well as contribute with 18 off 11 with the bat. It is unlikely that Patel will be able to force himself into the side as first-choice, but if he continues as he currently is, he will be very hard to leave out in the future.
Mohammed Siraj
Siraj’s appearance in the first match of the series was just his fourth T20i cap since making his debut in the format in 2017 and his first appearance since March 2018. Despite bowling an excellent 20th over where he took the wicket of Rachin Ravindra and went for just seven runs, Siraj overall had a disappointing outing, finishing with figures of 1-39 from his four overs. Of course, given the volatility of the format and the sporadic nature with which Siraj has been played it is hard to read too much into the numbers. But so far, the T20i format is not one that has been kind to him as his four matches have seen him bowl 16 overs at an economy of 11.68.
