NEW DELHI: India's final T20 encounter before the World Cup was a three-match series against Afghanistan, which they won 3-0.
And though India head coach Rahul Dravid was pleased with the series result, he was primarily concerned about his team's lack of practice time before the marquee tournament in the USA and the West Indies.
1/10:3rd T20I: Rohit Sharma leads India record surge against Afghanistan
TNN
2/10:Rohit Sharma
<p>Rohit Sharma registered his fifth T20I hundred, including third as captain, to become the first batter to accomplish the feat in T20Is. </p>AFP
3/10:5th T20I ton
<p>Rohit Sharma went ahead of Glenn Maxwell and Suryakumar Yadav who have four T20I hundreds each to their credit. </p>PTI
4/10:121 not out
<p>Rohit Sharma's unbeaten 121 is his career-best in T20Is, bettering the 118 against Sri Lanka at Indore on December 22, 2017. </p>AFP
5/10:Most sixes as captain
<p>Rohit Sharma's 90 sixes in 54 innings are the most by a captain in T20Is, outstripping the 86 in 65 innings by Eoin Morgan. </p>TNN
6/10:Rinku Singh
<p>Rinku Singh's unbeaten 69 is his career-best in T20Is, bettering his only other fifty — 68 not out vs South Africa at St. George's Park on December 12, 2023. </p>PTI
7/10:India's highest partnership
<p>An unbroken stand of 190 runs for the fifth wicket between Rohit Sharma and Rinku Singh is India's highest partnership for any wicket in T20Is. </p>TNN
8/10:World record stand
<p>The unbeaten 190-run stand is also a world record for the fifth wicket in T20Is, outstripping the 145 between Dipendra Airee and Kushal Malla for Nepal vs Hong Kong at Mulpani on October 21, 2023. </p>PTI
9/10:36 runs in an over
<p>36 runs scored by Rohit and Rinku off Karim Janat, emulated a record for most runs in an over (7-ball over: 4, 7nb, 6, 1, 6, 6, 6). </p>PTI
10/10:Yuvraj Singh
<p>Yuvraj Singh had scored 36 runs off Stuart Broad's 6-ball over at Durban on September 19, 2007 and Kieron Pollard — 36 off Akila Dananjaya's 6-ball over at Antigua on March 3, 2021. </p>Getty Images"Unfortunately, we really won't have much cricket as a team anymore. We will obviously have the IPL, and you know, everyone will be watching closely to see how some of those guys play and what are the slots we need to fill in the team," Dravid said in his post-match press conference.
After the 3-0 series victory against Afghanistan, Dravid was happy because a few bench players showed well, providing the team additional alternatives ahead of the T20 World Cup in June.
After the ODI World Cup, India played 11 Twenty20 matches, and with frontline players rested, the think tank was able to examine some of the candidates more closely, including Jitesh Sharma and Shivam Dube.
Dravid was quite chuffed at their efforts.
"We've had different people play after the last ODI World Cup for a variety of reasons. But I think it's just nice to see that there are some options (ahead of World Cup) who have put their hand up, and certainly shown that they've got skills to address.
"Some areas we might need some addressing in, and we were thinking about it," Dravid said.
1/10:3rd T20I: India outlast Afghanistan in second Super Over
AP
2/10:India beat Afghanistan
<p>India edged Afghanistan in a dramatic second Super Over to sweep the Twenty20 series after the third match ended in a tie following Rohit Sharma's record-setting century on Wednesday. </p>PTI
3/10:Rohit Sharma
<p>The India captain became the first batsman to hit five T20 international tons as his unbeaten 121 off 69 balls powered the hosts to 212-4 in Bengaluru after they had slipped to 22-4. </p>PTI
4/10:Rohit and Rinku
<p>Rohit, out for a duck in the opening two wins, struck 11 fours and eight sixes and put on 190 runs with Rinku Singh, who hit 69 not out off 39 balls. </p>TNN
5/10:5th T20I ton
<p>Rohit, who went past Glenn Maxwell and Suryakumar Yadav -- both with four T20 tons, rebuilt the innings and then tore into the opposition attack as he surpassed his previous T20 best of 118. </p>TNN
6/10:Raining sixes
<p>It was raining sixes in the final five overs when India plundered 103 runs. Rohit and Rinku smashed 36 off the final over, which included a six off a no-ball. </p>PTI
7/10:Fareed Ahmad Malik
<p>Left-arm quick Fareed Ahmad Malik returned figures of 3-20 and caused early damage with the wickets of Yashasvi Jaiswal (4), Virat Kohli and Sanju Samson, both removed for first-ball ducks. </p>PTI
8/10:The run chase
<p>Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran scored 50 each to put on 93 runs for the first wicket and set up the chase. </p>AP
9/10:Gulbadin Naib
<p>Afghanistan put up a spirited response as Gulbadin Naib hit an unbeaten 55 off 23 balls to steer his side to 212-6, taking two off the final delivery to level the scores. </p>PTI
10/10:Mohammad Nabi
<p>Mohammad Nabi smashed a quickfire 34 to keep his side in the hunt and Naib helped get 18 runs off the final over from fast bowler Mukesh Kumar to tie the match. </p>PTIWith 124 runs and two wickets in the series against Afghanistan, Dube won player of the series, and Dravid was happy to have an all-rounder option to choose from.
"He's come back after a long time. He's certainly very much an improved player after coming back. There's no doubt that he always had the talent, but just really happy to see the way he performed in the series.
"I'm sure it will give him a lot of confidence as well, you come back in and play a series and you become the man of the series. It's great and has certainly put his hand up. He's going to have that opportunity to show it in the IPL again, like he did last year," said Dravid.
The position of the wicketkeeper will also be scrutinized because India now has several options in Jitesh, Sanju Samson, Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, and Rishabh Pant, who is still recovering from an injury.
The former Indian captain did not rule out anyone from contention.
"We've got quite a few keeping options out there. We saw a couple of guys in this game. There's Sanju, Kishan and Rishabh, I mean, we have all these guys. "We'll just have to see how things pan out over the course of the next few months and make a decision on what we think is the best way to go."
In the second Super Over against Afghanistan on Wednesday night, captain Rohit Sharma's choice to send the ball to leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi impressed Dravid as well.
Bishnoi defended 11 runs well, bowling out Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Mohammed Nabi on consecutive balls.
"Rohit went with Bishnoi and it was his gut call. I think he felt that a spinner had a better chance to take two wickets. If they batted six balls, with the power that they had, they probably would have got 12 runs.
"But I thought Bishnoi was brilliant because he bowled two super balls. He pulled the length back. If the length had gone slightly fuller, you know, it would have gone for six. It was a really good gut call from Rohit to go for the wickets and be more aggressive rather than looking for a safer option," Dravid added.
(With PTI inputs)
