Team India cruised to an easy win in the first match of the T20 series against Sri Lanka on Saturday. Notably, skipper Suryakumar Yadav took over as India's T20I skipper for this series, while it is also Gautam Gambhir's first series as India coach.
Interestingly, the Men in Blue recently won the T20 World Cup after a gap of 17 years and this is the first time most of that squad will be back in Indian colours playing cricket for the country. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav, however, has said that the World Cup is now history and that it is time to start from scratch for the team.
While speaking at the toss for 1st T20 encounter at Kandy, Suryakumar said, "It (the pitch) looks good, and it is fine to bat first. The brand of cricket remains the same. The relationship me and him (Gambhir) have had for so many years is special. Dube, Samson, Khaleel, and Washington are the four players to miss out. That (World Cup) is history; we start from scratch, and it is a new challenge,"
Living up to his words, Team India produced a clinical performance with both bat and ball to defeat the hosts by 43 runs. Skipper Suryakumar led from the front with a blistering half-century, while other key knocks from Rishabh Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill helped the men in blue post 213/7 in their 20 overs.
In reply, the Lankans got off to a good start with two openers, but a collapse in the middle order meant they could not keep up with the required run rate and were eventually bowled out for 170 in the final over of the match. The hosts will have another go at beating the world champions when they take on them in the second T20I at the same venue.
