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India vs New Zealand, The third and decisive T20 international was played in Napier. Hardik Pandya captain the T20 squad, first match was abandoned without a single ball being played. The 2nd T20 was won by India with huge margin of 65 runs. The last and most awaited match started on the scheduled time, New Zealand won the toss and choose to bat first. Although, the match would be remembered for its interesting outcome through the Duckworth Lewis.
New-Zealand put 160 runs on the board to chase. India did lose some early wickets but kept the run-rate on check. It was 9th over when rain stopped the game and as per the Duckworth Lewis, 75 runs should be scored for a TIE and more to win the game. India scored exactly 75 runs in 9 overs before the rain stopped the game.
While the whole tournament remain very interest and India won it by 1 – 0. However the most discussed subject during this tournament was the Hardik Pandya T20 captaincy. After humiliating defeat in Semi-Finals against England in T20 World Cup 2022 and with similar fate in the Asia Cup 2022, cricket experts started raising question on Rohit Sharma’s captaincy. The biggest issue with him was that he fail to utilized his middle over bowlers to restrict the runs and take the wickets.
Also Rohit Sharma became 35 and Virat Kohli turned 34 in this November, seeing the circumstances BCCI started pondering for T20’s future plan. As per the Cricket experts, The most eligible contender for T20I captain was either KL Rahul or Hardik Pandya. Since KL Rahul is struggling with his form, Hardik Pandya became the sole contender for the leadership role. Some of the key aspects that went into his favor are,
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- He recently captained GUJRAT TITANS in IPL 2022 and won the title.
2. He is an allrounder and could be a dynamic team player in the aspects of game i.e. Batting, Bowling and Fielding.
3. He is in late 20s and still have at least 5 to 6 six years to give in international cricket.
4. After recovering from his injury, he is more focused and consistent on keeping himself.
With all of the above factors, the outcome of current series is also a big reason of hope. Especially the rotation of bowlers Hardik Pandya did in 2nd and 3rd match. He successfully utilized Yuzvendra Chahal, Deppak Hooda and Mohammad Siraj efficiently and dismissed the whole team on just 126 runs and similar thing happened in 3rd match as well. Besides the Devon Conway and Glenn Philips all the other batsman succumb to the Indian bowlers and again dismissed the whole team. This comes as a biggest ray of hope and Hardik Pandya as its bearer.
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