With the series already in the bag, the Indian side will be eager to perfect its freshly-baked T20 template as a team and hope that skipper Rohit Sharma’s bat finally fires when they face Afghanistan in the third and last match of the rubber in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Rohit needs only 44 runs to surpass Virat Kohli and become the India skipper with most T20I runs. Rohit currently has 1527 runs to his name as India’s T20I skipper. Additionally, another win as India’s T20I skipper will see Rohit surpassing MS Dhoni to become the most successful India captain in the format. Currently both are tied at 41.
Meanwhile, Virat Kohli will also be in focus during the game as he is only six runs away from the milestone of 12 thousand runs in T20s. If he manages to do so, Kohli will become the first Indian batter to register 12 thousand T20 runs.
This will be India’s final T20 game ahead of the World Cup in June, and the team management wouldn’t want any drop in intensity that was displayed during victories at Mohali and Indore.
India’s identical six-wicket wins were marked by an ultra-aggressive mindset from ball one that saw them chasing down 159 in 17.3 overs and 173 in 15.4 overs respectively.
It was a clear deviation from their earlier approach of building the momentum for a final flourish in T20s. None showed this intent more brightly than Shivam Dube and Kohli.
Kohli was playing a T20I for India after 14 months at Indore, but he creamed a 16-ball 29 at a strike rate of 181.
The most noteworthy feature of his little yet significant innings was the way he handled Afghan spinner Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, whom he carted for 18 runs off seven balls, striking against him at a rate of 257.
Kohli has always been a bit of a slow-mover against spin but there was no trepidation this time and he showed commendable alacrity to contribute his two cents to a transformed approach.
(With PTI Inputs)
