Indian captain Hardik Pandya was a happy person after Men in Blue defeated Sri Lanka by 91 runs in the third and final T20I in Rajkot and won the series 2-1. India had won the first T20I in Mumbai by 2 runs and lost the second in Pune by 16 runs, but came good in the final match when it was needed.
Suryakumar Yadav starred with the bat as he smashed his third T20I ton, scoring 112* in 51 balls with 9 sixes and 7 fours to his name, while Shubman Gill made 46 and Rahul Tripathi made a quick 35 runs as India posted 228/5 in 20 overs.
Sri Lankan couldn’t keep up with the required run rate and was bundled out for 137 runs to lose by 91 runs.
The three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka saw the Indian set-up begin a new era under the leadership of Pandya. During the post-match presser, Pandya talked about leading a young side and said that it was not that difficult as he just had to ensure that the younger lot "belong at this level"
"It's actually not that difficult. My life becomes very easy, when the experienced players are there, I don't say much to them because they are here because they have done a lot of good things in their lives. Managing is not difficult, but yes it's a young group. They will make mistakes, they will learn from it, something that we have emphasized that once you make a mistake you make sure that you learn from it. Acceptance is very important in this sport. If you don't expect it, things go very far,” Pandya said.
"But when a young team is there, the only thing I can help them is about giving them confidence, how to make sure they are at a level, when they are playing here, they feel that they belong here. That is very important in international cricket. In this group, it's a very good journey. Youngsters are willing to learn and it makes my journey very easy,” he added.
Praising Suryakumar Yadav for his brilliant century, Hardik Pandya said: "Today, it felt like Sri Lanka against Surya. It makes my life very easy. I always mention that someone like Surya is so important for us in white-ball cricket. The way he plays some shots, the way he changes the game, it actually breaks the morale of the bowler and which kind of helps the other batter as well."
WATCH: “You have to teach me…” Suryakumar Yadav wants to learn ‘no-look shot’ from Dewald Brevis
Pandya said: "You don't tell him anything. Surya, the kind of form he's playing and the clarity he has you don't really need to speak to him. He is always very clear about his plans and that's the reason he's successful in this format. He doesn't doubt his ability. Wherever he's in double minds, he always comes and have a chat. I don't think anyone has to say anything to him."
The captain had special praise for Rahul Tripathi, who snatched the momentum for India in the first 6 overs, by smashing 5 fours and 2 sixes in his 16-ball 35-run knock.
He said: "Special mention to Rahul Tripathi as well, the kind of intent he showed that is something which is so natural to him. It can change the momentum of the game. If you see the first couple of overs the ball was doing something, and people from the outside thought there was something there in the wicket.
But because of his intent all of a sudden, the ball stopped moving, they changed their length, and then it was all about as if they were chasing the game. Overall, it was terrific from Surya and Tripathi."
On Team India's aggressive approach, he said: "It's not always that we will play aggressively in terms of hitting. There might be a case where we do the same thing but we end up scoring 150.
"But what is important is the intent, you look for a boundary but when a good ball is there you respect that ball. But if you have a defensive mindset, even if a bad ball is there, you are not able to put that away."
(PTI inputs)
