India won the 1st T20I by 62 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-game T20I series against Sri Lanka on Thursday (February 24), extending their longest winning streak in T20Is to ten games. Ishan smashed 89 off 56 deliveries before Shreyas Iyer added a quick-fire 57 to help India reach a daunting 199 for two at the end of 20 overs.
Sri Lanka lost wickets at regular intervals in response, with Bhuvneshwar giving India the perfect start by dismissing Pathum Nissanka (0) on the first ball of the innings. Charith Asalanka scored an unbeaten 53, but the visitors' batters had no answers for the Indian bowling attack, which included the experienced duo of Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja.
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After a two-month layoff, Bumrah, who was rested for the white-ball series against the West Indies, and Jadeja, who had been recovering from an injury, returned to the mix. In addition to Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the Indian pace unit has been strengthened by Harshal Patel, whose career has taken off since a stellar IPL 2021 performance.
The medium-pacer, who is known for his variations and cutters, has nine wickets in six T20Is so far, and former India pacer Zaheer Khan believes Bumrah's presence will bode well for Harshal. In the lead-up to this year's T20 World Cup in Australia, the current team management will be looking for the ideal team combination. Zaheer also explained how the Bumrah-Harshal pairing would work well together.
"Bumrah and Harshal will be a complementing pair... purely because when you talk about Bumrah, you talk about that awkward angle and fast yorkers. To add to that, he's got that beautiful variation of bowling slower ones. When you look at Harshal, his success story has been around people looking to attack. When batters are coming hard at him, he feels more comfortable and chances of him taking a wicket are on the higher side," Zaheer told Cricbuzz.
"It will work in his favour when he has someone like Bumrah bowling from the other end. Batters would want to take more chances against Harshal than against Bumrah... and it would work in Harshal's favour. Bumrah is gonna make it very difficult for batters to score runs freely and that's gonna give an edge to Harshal to use his variations. I think this pair at the death overs will complement each other," he added.
At the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, Harshal finished with bowling figures of 0/10 from two overs, while Bumrah finished with 0/19 from three overs. Venkatesh Iyer was also impressive with the ball, taking two wickets to help India restrict the opposition to 137 for six in 20 overs.
The second and third T20I between India and Sri Lanka will be played in Dharamsala on February 26 and 27.
