As widely expected, India sewed up another T20I series by smashing New Zealand 4-1 in what was the last preparation before the World Cup this week. The margins of defeat for Suryakumar Yadav’s team – ranked No 1 in the game for a reason – are indication enough of how powerful this side is, and why they are the tournament favourites.
India won by 48 runs in Nagpur, by seven wickets (with 28 deliveries left) in Raipur, bu eight wickets (with 10 overs to spare) in Guwahati and over the weekend by 46 runs in Thiruvananthapuram. Those are massive victories, especially when you consider that 209 was chased in 15.2 overs and 154 in 10. The one loss to the Black Caps, by 50 runs, was an anomaly and a result that India might have avoided if not for a selection misjudgment.
This marked India’s 11th successive bilateral series win, and the ninth in a row for Suryakumar. In the process, SKY also bounced back from a prolonged slump of form, scoring a series-topping 242 runs at 80.66 and with a strike-rate of almost 197. That is big news for India, who are also defending T20 World Cup champions, and targeting history. No team has ever defended the title, and never has a host nation won the World Cup.
India look like changing that trend. They play a brand of fearless cricket, which was never more evident than in the four games they won. In the series opener, Abhishek Sharma threw caution to the wind as he smashed 84 from 35 balls after the score was 27/2 in the third over. In the next match, it was Ishan Kishan who counter-attacked brilliantly with 76 off 32 balls when India were 6/2, leaving Surya to marvel at a rare innings of bravado.
In Guwahati, after Sanju Samson fell first ball of the chase, Abhishek finished on 68 off 20, Kishan contributed 28 off 13 and Surya was not out on 57 from 26. In the last game, 31/1 and 48/2 mattered little to Kishan or Surya, who smashed 103 off 43 deliveries and 64 from 30, respectively.
That kind of fearless hitting, though risky, has worked for India since SKY took over in 2024 and the results have been extraordinary.
Each one of India’s top seven, barring the woefully out of form Samson, left their imprint on the series victory over New Zealand. Surya hit three fifties, Kishan a fifty and a maiden T20I century, Abhishek got two half-centuries, Shivam Dube slammed a 15-ball fifty, and there were valuable 40s from Rinku Singh and Hardik Pandya.
Samson entered this series as India’s top wicketkeeper and ends it looking at sitting on the bench. In five innings, he has virtually played himself out of India’s World Cup team with 46 runs in five innings. Kishan, the second wicketkeeper in the squad, and playing for India after two years, grabbed his chances with 215 runs in four games while striking at 231. India could well go with Kishan and Abhishek against USA on February 7.
The bowling was not as dominant as India’s batting in this series, chiefly because of the nature of the surfaces. Arshdeep Singh had one bad match, sat out for two games, and in the last one he bounced back from conceding 40 runs in two overs to end with 5/51. Arshdeep is a rhythm bowler, and frankly should have been played in all five games.
India’s rotation policy saw the format’s top-ranked bowler Varun Chakravarthy play only three games, from which he claimed four wickets at 27 apiece and an economy rate of nine per over. Pandya sent down 10 overs for four wickets, economy 8.30. Kuldeep Yadav, coming off a bad ODI series against the same team, managed four wickets in three matches, conceding runs at 9.63 an over.
Axar Patel injured himself and bowled just 7.3 overs but took four wickets. Harshit Rana copped a bruising, with his solitary wicket from three games coming at 62 at an economy of 11.27. Dube was used sparingly, as often happens, and pocketed three wickets from six overs. Ravi Bishnoi, not part of the World Cup squad, took three wickets in two appearances.
Prima facie, India’s bowling attack for the first couple of World Cup games looks to be Arshdeep, Bumrah, Pandya, Varun and Axar, with Dube the sixth option and Abhishek the seventh.
The batting picks itself. If Tilak Varma makes it back in time, then he should rightfully slot back at one-down, which means Kishan would open with Abhishek. However, Rinku may once again get the chop, unfairly.
As India head into the World Cup, the message is unmistakable: this is a side built to dominate—and to challenge history.
